TWELVE    LECTURES 


ON  THE 


HISTORY  OF   PEDAGOGY, 


DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE    CINCINNATI 
TEACHERS'  ASSOCIATION. 


i  T  Y 


&/POE^ 


BY 


W.  N.  HAILMAN,  A.  M., 

Author  of  "  Kinderijarlen  CuUiire  "  and  "  Object  Teaching.^^ 


WILSON,  HINKLE  &  CO., 

No.  137  Walnut  Strebt,  No.  28  Bond  Strkkt, 

CINCINNATI.  NEW  YORK. 


I- AI3 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  by 

WILSON,  HINKLE  &  CO., 

In  tlie  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 

BLECTKOTYPED  AT  THE   FUAXKLIN  TYPE   FOUNDRY,  CINCINNATI. 


3(0/9^ 


PREFACE. 


The  twelve  lectilres  on- the  History  of  Pedagogy, 
offered  to  the  profession  \pr-.  this;  little  volume,  were 
delivered  before  the  Cincinnati  Teachers'  Institute,  in 
the  summer  of  1873.  At  the  instance  of  Superin- 
tendent Hancock  and  many  of  the  teachers  who 
listened  to  the  lectures,  I  have  concluded  to  publish 
them  in  the  present  form. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  I  do  not  claim  to  present 

even   an   abbreviated   history  of  pedagogy.     My   aim 

was  to  sketch,  in  a  concise  form,  the  gradual  growth 

of  the  leading  principles  of  modern  education,  singling 

out   for    this    purpose    a   few    of  the    most    prominent 

thinkers  and  workers  in  the  field  of  pedagogy. 

The  great  majority  of  teachers,  on  entering  the  pro- 

(iii) 


IV  PREFACE. 

fession,  have  had  little  opportunity  of  becoming  ac- 
quainted with  principles  and  methods  of  teaching, 
and  confine  themselves  mainly  to  the  imitation  of 
their  teachers.  This  is  apt  to  make  their  teaching 
mechanical,  soulless,  devoid  of  high  aims,  so  that  they 
exercise  very  little  if  any  influence  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  intelligence  and  character  in  the  pupils;  it 
prevents  them  from  asserting  their  own  individuality 
in  their  work,  and  thus  keeps  them  from  developing 
individuality  in  their  pupils.  At  the  same  time,  they 
are  unable,  for  w^ant  of  a  firm  basis,  to  contribute  to 
the  growth  of  correct  principles  in  the  profession,  and 
are  thus  rather  an  impediment  to  progress. 

It  is  true  that,  in  the  course  of  years,  a  number  of 
them,  by  dint  of  experience  and  some  study,  become 
valuable,  "live"  members  of  the  profession;  but  this 
entails  a  serious  loss  of  time.  Besides,  the  number  of 
those  who  leave  the  profession  without  having  done  it 
any  good,  or  who  become  petrified  in  certain  fixed  prac- 
tices, is  much  greater. 

To  contribute  to  the  abrogation  of  these  evils  is  the 
object  of  this  little   volume.     It  is  believed,  too,  that 


PREFACE.  .  V 

a  sketch  like  this,  laying  almost  exclusive  stress  upon 
the  most  important  principles  that  should  underlie  all 
education,  and  not  encumbered  with  less  important  or 
even  useless  details  and  facts,  will  do  more  good  in  this 
direction  than  a  complete,  exhaustive  history  of  peda- 
gogy; nay,  that  the  perusal  of  such  a  sketch,  while  it 
invites  to  the  careful  study  of  the  history  of  pedagogy, 
is  in  most  cases  almost  indispensable  for  a  correct  ap- 
preciation and  application  of  historical  facts  subse- 
quently acquired. 

On  this  account,  too,  this  little  volume  will  be  found 
more  suitable,  more  fruitful  of  good  results,  as  a  text- 
book in  normal  and  training  schools,  than  more  elab- 
orate treatises  on  the  same  subject,  which,  while  they 
pay  great  attention  to  dates  and  minor  details,  neglect 
the  drift,  the  essential  spirit  of  the  subjects  under 
consideration. 

In  the  preparation  of  the  lectures  —  not  originally 
designed  for  publication  —  I  made  use,  in  some  cases 
rather  freely,  of  previous  publications  from  my  pen, 
without,  however,  impairing  the  value  of  the  sketch, 
whatever  that  may  be.     The   principal  sources  from 


VI  PREFACE. 

which  I  took  facts,  and  in  many  cases  views,  are 
Barnard's  School  Journal,  Schmidt's,  Kaumer's,  Kruse's, 
Dittes's  writings,  and  other  works  on  the  history  of 
pedagogy,  and  the  original  writings  of  the  pedagogic 
heroes  introduced  in  the  book. 

May  the  little  volume  do  its  allotted  share  of  good. 

W.  N.  H. 


Louisville,  ") 
April,  1874.) 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  I. 

PAGE 

Importance  of  History  of  Pedagogy  —  China  and  Japan        .      9 


LECTURE  11. 

Greece :   General  Features— Sparta— Lycurgus— Pythagoras — 
Athens— Solon 18 

LECTURE  III. 
Greece:  Socrates— Plato — Aristotle 31 

LECTURE  IV. 

Rome:    Nmna  Pompilius— General   Characteristics — Advent 
of  Greek  Culture— Cicero— Seneca — Quintilian         .        .     42 

LECTURE  V. 
Christianity — The  Sixteenth  Century— Bacon— Comenius      .     52 

LECTURE  VI. 

Locke — Francke .63 

(vii) 


VI 11  CONTENTS. 

LECTURE  YII. 

PACK 

Rousseau 74 

LECTURE  VIII. 

Influence  of  Modern  Philosophers :  Kant— Fichte— Richter — 
Sc'ho])enhaner — Hegel  —  Rosenkranz — Herbart — Benecke 
— Spencer       . 85 

LECTURE  IX. 
Pestalozzi:  Biographical 93 

LECTURE  X. 
Pestalozzi:   His  Principles  and  Views 105 

LECTURE  XL 
Frederic  Froebel — Kindergarten  Culture  .        .        .        .114 

LECTURE  XII. 
Summing  up — Conclusion 123 


^Lm^&^ 


LECTURE   I. 

IMPORTANCE  OF  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY — CHINA  AND  JAPAN. 

The  history  of  any  art  or  science  is  the  great  recepta- 
cle of  the  thoughts  and  achievements  in  that  art  or 
science;  hence  it  furnishes  the  basis  of  progress.  The 
man  who  re -invents  the  steam-engine  to-day,  proves 
himself  a  master  mind;  but  his  mastership  does  not 
benefit  the  race,  which  is  already  in  possession  of  the 
steam-engine.  On  the  other  hand,  the  race  would  have 
been  benefitted,by  the  labors  of  this  master  mind  if  he 
had  devoted  his  energies  to  the  same  field  on  the  basis 
of  James  Watt's  achievements.  Thus,  in  education, 
too,  the  teacher  who,  ignorant  of  Pestalozzi's  and  Froe- 
bel's  principles,  re-discovers  one  or  more  of  these,  proves 
thereby  that  he  is  the  peer  of  these  pedagogic  heroes, 
but  his  labors  yield  no  gain  to  the  race,  and  he  would 
have  been  a  much  more  useful  member  of  the  craft  had 
he,  even  with  inferior  powers,  devoted  himself  to  the 
propagation  of  the  principles  discovered —  to  the  apostle- 
ship,  as  it  were,  of  Pestalozzi  and  Froebel. 

Again,  if  we  consider  that  the  empiric  in  physical 
'science  must  waste  a  great  amount,  not  only  of  time 

'(9) 


10  *     HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

and  "u^orking  force,  but  also  of  material,  in  order  to 
arrive  at  his  results,  we  are  justified  in  looking  upon 
him  as  an  absolutely  injurious  member  of  society,  who 
destro3's  where  he  would  create.  Yet,  in  view  of  the 
abundance  of  inorganic  material  and  its  apparent  in- 
difference, we  may  forgive  him  his  blundering,  and 
while  w^e  pity  him,  we  may  still  honor  him.  Not  so 
with  the  blunderer  in  educational  matters,  whose  mate- 
rial lives  and  grows,  and,  in  consequence  of  his  mis- 
takes, may  live  and  grow  into  misery  and  crime.  Such 
a  blunderer  becomes  a  curse  to  society,  and  should  not 
be  countenanced.  Indeed,  it  is  no  hyperbole  if  educa- 
tional empiricism,  in  the  family  as  well  as  in  the  school, 
is  designated  as  "murder  of  the  innocents." 

How  little  this  fact  is  generally  appreciated,  appears 
from  the  indifference  of  parents  and  average  school 
authorities  to  the  preparation  of  those  whom  they  em- 
ploy, in  the  very  things  which  are  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance. The  future  teacher  is  examined  in  a  number 
of  arts  and  sciences,  but  little  or  no  h-eed  is  given  to 
his  or  her  proficiency  in  educational  principles  and  in 
pedagogic  skill.  The  training  of  the  youngest  pupils, 
most  easily  impressed  for  good  or  evil,  is  still,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  intrusted  to  the  least  experienced,  for 
the  sake  of  economizing  expense.  In  consequence  of 
the  numerous  failures  of  so  many  who  claim  to  do  the 
teacher's  work,  the  teacher's  profession  still  struggles  in 
a  sort  of  disrepute,  which  exposes  its  votaries  to  want  of 
confidence,  to  an  income  wholly  incommensurate  with  the 
responsibilities,  to  the  indignity  of  being  re-examined 
again  and  again  on  the  most  absurd  basis,  and  of  feeling 
an  annual  nervousness  concerning  re-appointment. 


ITS  IMPORTANCE.  11 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  unfortunate  facts 
are  due  mainly  to  professional  ignorance  and  to  a  con- 
sequent utter  demoralization  of  professional  ethics.  An 
irrefutable  proof  for  this  assertion  is  found  in  the 
marked  improvement  that  characterizes  the  professional 
status  of  a  few  favored  localities  where  talent,  knowl- 
edge, and  skill  have  attained  at  least  a  partial  triumph. 

It  is  evident  that  a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  edu- 
cation, an  acquaintance  with  the  thoughts  of  earnest 
men  that  have  gone  before  us,  a  familiarity  with  the 
results  of  faithful  laborers  in  similar  fields,\an  intimacy 
with  their  struggles,  their  martyrdom,  or  their  triumph, 
will  do  much  to  enhance  our  efficiency,  as  well  as  our 
professional  self-respect,  while,  at  the  same  time,vit  will 
rid  us  of  every  vestige  of  self-complacent  pedantry  and 
indolent,  servile  submission  to  arbitrary  authority. 
While  it  will  enable  us  to  profit  by  the  failures,  as  well 
as  by  the  successes  of  our  predecessors,  it  will  teach  us 
still  to  look  ahead,  and  to  strain  every  nerve  in  earnest, 
thoughtful  efforts  to  approach  the  yet  distant  ideal. 

In  its  widest  sense,  the  history  of  education  would  be 
the  history  of  the  development  of  the  human  race. 
For  the  teacher  specifically,  however,  it  deals  mainly 
with  the  intentional,  systematic  influence  exercised  by 
older  individuals  of  the  race  upon  younger  ones,  with  a 
view  of  fitting  them  for  life.  It  deals  with  the  efforts 
made  by  the  family,  the  school,  the  church,  and  similar 
organizations,  to  make  the  young  suitable  and  more  or 
less  self-dependent  members  of  the  community.  It  can 
not  ignore  the  influence  of  individual  propensities  and 
of  external  circumstances,  but  it  attends  to  them  only  so 
far  as  they  have  a  marked  effect  upon  the  direct  educa- 


12  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

tional  efforts  of  family,  school,  and  similar  organizations. 
Among  these  organizations,  again,  the  school  will  claim 
the  greatest  share  of  the  teacher's  attention.  There  are 
other  limits,  such  as  the  degree  of  civilizatian  of  a  state, 
the  authenticity  of  its  history,  etc. ;  but  these  the  his- 
tory of  education  shares  with  all  history,  so  that  I  need 
not  dwell  upon  them  here. 

In  the  short  course  of  lectures  that  you  had  the  kind- 
ness to  assign  to  me,  it  becomes,  moreover,  necessar}-  to 
single  out  for  study  a  few  of  the  numerous  threads  that 
form  the  historical  complex.  In  the  selection  of  these, 
I  have  thought  it  best  to  choose  those  that  have  led  to 
the  new  developing  education,  thus  supplementing,  to 
a  limited  extent,  the  lectures  which  I  had  the  honor 
to  deliver  before  you  last  year. 

It  is,  then,  my  pleasant  task  to  review  with  you  the 
thoughts  and  deeds  of  a  few  earnest  teachers  of  various 
times  and  nations,  whose  wisdom  has  graduall}^  pro- 
cured us  the  conviction  that  man  is  an  organic  being, 
subject,  in  all  his  manifestations  of  life,  to  laws  of 
organic  growth  or  development  from  within  outward; 
that  society  is  a  similar  though  more  complex  organ- 
ism; and  that  the  aim  of  education  mu&t  be  the  devel- 
opment of  independent  individualities,  fitted  for  life  in 
society,  capable  of  happiness  and  efficient  for  usefulness, 
on  the  basis  of  morality  and  reason. 

With  such  an  aim,  we  find  little  to  interest  us  in  our 
search  for  data  prior  to  the  Greeks,  and  little  outside 
of  the  Caucasian  race.  Only  the  Chinese  and  Japanese 
deserve  a  passing  notice,  more,  however,  because  among 
them  we  find,  in  almost  every  respect,  the  opposite  of 
our  aims  clearly  crystallized. 


CHINA  AND  JAPAN.  13 

Although  Kong  —  who  lived  among  the  Chinese  500 
years  before  Christ,  whom  they  reverentially  call  "the 
Teacher,"  and  w^ho  is  esteemed  among  us  under  the 
Latinized  name  of  Confucius  —  declared  that  the  destiny 
of  man  is  to  perfect  himself,  their  entire  educational 
system  aims  at  limits  so  rigidly  fixed  that  further  de- 
velopment is  impossible.  Their  scope  of  thought,  their 
manners  and  customs,  the  entire  social  fabric,  every 
thing  that  relates  to  the  life  of  man,  has  assumed  posi- 
tive, unalterable  forms;  and  the  "rtim  of  Chinese  educa- 
tion is  the  faithful  transmission  of  old,  established  views 
and  facts  —  the  strict  training  in  old,  established  usage. 
A  free,  independent  development  of  human  powers  is 
not  known ;  individuality  is  imprisoned  within  the 
walls  of  settled  rules;  the  principle  of  stability  is  the 
criterion  of  this  education  which  is  eminently  practical, 
egotistical,  conventional,  technical. 

This  view  of  the  aim  of  education  guides  pedagogic 
practice  in  every  direction.  Physical  life  is  protected, 
nursed,  and  subjected  to  strict  discipline,  because  it 
determines  the  utility  and  the  welfare  of  the  individual; 
the  muscles  are  trained  to  nimbleness  and  skill,  because 
these  are  needed  in  the  observance  of  a  complicated  cer- 
emonial and  in  a  number  of  trades ;  play  and  recreation 
are  allowed  to  the  young,  to  give  them  new  vigor  for 
new  efforts.  But  calisthenic  and  gymnastic  exercises, 
in  the  interest  of  general  culture,  find  no  place  in  the 
Chinese  system  of  education,  because  their  influence 
upon  the  entire  organism  of  man,  upon  the  physical 
economy  as  well  as  upon  the  intellect,  the  will,  and  the 
aesthetic  sense,  is  not  understood. 

Morally,  the  aim  is  decorous  conduct,  but  not  moral 


14  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

strength  and  moral  feelina:.  Here  usage  and  law  enter 
with  pedantic  minuteness  into  every  detail  of  life. 
Every  motion,  every  position  of  the  body,  the  number 
and  depth  of  bows,  the  entire  social  ceremonial  is  pre- 
scribed for  every  imaginable  case  of  intercourse  with 
others.  A  complicated  system  of  formalities,  of  police 
regulations  and  fines,  usurps  the  place  of  plain  truth, 
justice,  and  love.  The  voice  of  feeling  and  of  conscience 
is  drowned  in  usage  and  written  law.  The  child  learns 
how  it  must  speak,  stand,  walk,  and  sit,  but  not  how  it 
shall  feel  and  think.  Hence  result  servility  toward 
superiors  and  cruelty  toward  inferiors;  dissimulation, 
falsehood,  deceit,  and  a  lieartless  egotism  stalk  abroad 
in  the  garb  of  conventional  decorum  and  legality. 

Hence,  too,  on  the  other  hand,  self-control,  love,  of 
order,  punctuality,  industry,  perseverance,  prudence, 
caution,  sobriety  are  the  national  virtues  of  the  Chinese. 
But  the  higher  interests  of  human  nature,  the  cheerful 
exercise  of  pure  morality,  disinterested  devotion  to  great 
ideas,  appreciation  of  human  dignit}^,  desire  for  self- 
improvement,  are  almost  wholly  crushed  in  the  iron 
fetters  of  practical  life;  so  that  the  miserable  human 
being,  reduced  almost  to  a  machine,  can  find  a  sort  of 
happiness  only  in  the  satisfaction  of  sensual  appetites. 
Similarly,  too,  the  religious  life  of  the  Chinese  has,  in 
the  course  of  time,  become  petrified  in  unmeaning  form- 
alism, with  no  influence  upon  the  sentiments  of  the 
worshipers. 

A  great  deal  of  attention  is  paid  to  intellectual  cul- 
ture. Schools  of  all  descriptions  exist  throughout  the 
empire,  and  the}'-  are  accessible  to  all.  Who  learns 
most  attains  the  highest  public  ofiQce,  even  if  he  is  the 


^  CHINA  AND  JAPAN.  15 

son  of  the  poorest  laborer.  The  claims  of  applicants  are 
sifted  by  the  most  searching  competitive  examinations, 
in  which  every  precaution  is  taken  to  prevent  decep- 
tion. As  soon  as  the  Chinese  boy  is  five  years  old  he 
starts  to  school ;  and,  although  there  is  no  law  of  com- 
pulsory education,  personal  interest  and  usage  bring 
about  a  well-nigh  universal  and  exceedingly  regular 
attendance  of  the  elementary  schools,  in  which  reading, 
writing,  arithmetic,  and  lessons  on  common  things 
constitute  the  curriculum. 

The  method  of  instruction  is  exclusively  dogmatical, 
without  a  trace  of  developing  elements;  for  positive 
knoAvledge  and  routine  are  the  only  aims  of  the  teacher's 
labor,  so  that  there  is  no  time  left  for  experiment  and 
reflection.  Telling  and  showing,  strict  discipline,  and 
constant  watchfulness  constitute  the  task  of  the  Chinese 
teacher;  attentive  listening,  careful  memorizing,  faithful 
imitating,  punctual  and  prompt  reciting  make  up  the 
business  of  the  learner. 

Thus,  reading  is  taught  in  the  following  manner: 
the  book,  entitled  ^^  Key  to  the  Regions  of  Classical  and 
Historical  Literature,^^  is  opened,  and  the  teacher  com- 
mences to  read.  The  pupils,  each  one  of  whom  has  a 
book,  repeat  every  word  uttered  by  the  teacher,  pointing 
to  the  word  with  the  forefinger,  and  looking  intently  at 
the  printed  symbol.  Only  one  line  is  read,  and  this  is 
repeated  until  the  pupils  have  caught  the  pronuncia- 
tion of  every  symbol,  and  are  enabled  to  read  the  line 
without  the  teacher's  assistance.  After  this,  they  must 
learn  it  by  heart.  This  they  do  in  a  loud  voice,  each 
boy  calling  out  the^  sounds  to  himself,  until  they  are 
impressed  upon  his  memory.     As  soon  as  he  knows  the 


16  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

line  by  heart,  he  brings  his  book  to  the  teacher,  turns 
his  back  upon  him,  and  recites  the  line.  Then  the 
teacher  proceeds  to  the  next  line,  until  the  whole  book 
is  learned  by  heart.  No  attention  is  paid  to  the  mean- 
ing of  the  words  and  sentences,  so  that  the  pupil  may 
read  the  whole  book  fluentl}^  without  the  least  under- 
standing of  its  contents.  Explanations  are  reserved  for 
the  higher  schools;  but  here,  too,  they  have  an  exclu- 
sively dogmatic  character. 

Similarly  writing  is  taught.  The  copies,  set  by  the 
teacher,  are  placed  under  translucent  paper,  and  the 
pupil  follows  the  lines  of  the  copy  with  his  brush,  until 
it  is  found  that  he  can  write  independently. 

This,  with  the  very  rudiments  of  arithmetic,  or  rather 
counting,  and  a  few  snatches  of  lessons  on  common 
things,  constitutes  the  school  learning  of  the  majority, 
and  furnishes  the  basis  for  more  extended  instruction, 
on  a  similar  plan,  in  the  higher  schools.  School  educa- 
tion is  confined  almost  exclusively  to  the  male  sex,  and 
girls  rarely  receive  any  instruction. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Japanese,  who  assign  to 
woman,  in  every  respect,  a  much  higher  position,  edu- 
cate also  the  girls  in  school.  The  general  plan  of 
schools  and  schooling  is,  however,  in  all  essential  feat- 
ures, similar  to  that  of  the  Chinese.  Nevertheless,  the 
Japanese,  distinguished  by  greater  energy  and  inde- 
pendence of  character,  have  saved  a  spark  of  progress- 
iveness  which,  under  recent  astonishing  developments, 
promises^ to  burst  into  a  magnificent  flame,  destined  to 
consume  all  that  is  cruel,  inhuman,  and  exclusive  in 
Mongolian  civilization,  and  to  change  the  latter  into  a 
worthy  competitor  of  the  more  favored  Caucasian  sister. 


CHINA  AND  jkEAN.     .  '  l^jj 

Thus,  thanks  to  the  respect  whTmn5lie|(?!t^t3t>ns  have 
ever  accorded  to  knowledge,  to  intellectual  eminence, 
and,  formerly  at  least,  to  moral  worth ;  thanks  to  the 
philanthropic  spirit  that  characterizes  their  institu- 
tions; thanks  to  the  democratic  impartiality  with 
which  they  admit  at  least  every  male  to  the  temple  of 
science,  and  open  for  him  the  path  to  glory  and  dis- 
tinction; they  may  yet,  fertilized  by  occidental  ^ro- 
gressiveness,  become  thoroughly  humanized  —  a  truly 
free  and  happy  people. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Hindoos,  EgyjDtians,  and 
Persians,  with  their  notorious  caste  institutions,  that 
render  individual  development  and  emancipation  ab- 
solutely impossible,  that  confine  every  man  within 
arbitrary  limits,  according  to  his  parentage,  and  make 
him  an  abject  sl^-ve  of  a  despotic  church  or  state,  have 
been  doomed,  by  the  logical  justice  of  events,  to  a 
well-deserved  oblivion  or  absorption  by  more  vigorous 
peoples.  We  should  find  little  to  repay  our  efforts  in 
the  educational  history  of  these,  and  we  may  therefore, 
without  fear  of  loss,  turn  our  attention  at  once  to  Greece, 
the  great  fountain-head  o£  Western  civilization. 


H.  p.— 2. 


LECTURE  11. 

GREECE  :     GENERAL   FEATURES  —  SPARTA  —  LYCURGUS  -* 
PYTHAGORAS  —  ATHENS  —  SOLON. 

The  Greek  ideal  of  education  is  expressed  by  them 
in  a  magnificent  word,  combining  in  its  elements  "the 
beautiful  and  the  good."  Greek  education  aims  at 
external  and  internal  beauty  and  goodness;  physical 
and  psychical  vigor,  health,  and  energy;  the  harmoni- 
ous culture  of  all  the  powers  of  body  and  soul.  This  is 
the  general  outcome  of  their  educational  efforts,  although 
they  were,  at  no  time,  and  among  none  of  the  numerous 
tribes,  fully  faithful  to  it,  even  in  theory.  While,  during 
the  heroic  age,  physical  and  moral  culture  claimed  their 
greatest  attention,  intellectual  culture  preponderated  in 
later  ages.  Again,  education  bore  in  each  tribe  or  state 
an  individual  character,  more  or  less  removed  from  the 
general  formula. 

From  Homer's  occasional  pictures  of  family  life,  we 
gather  that,  during  the  heroic  age,  education  was  to  a 
great  extent  patriarchal.  The  children  were  attached 
with  filial  piety  to  their  parents.  The  father  taught 
his  son  by  example  and  precept,  imparting  to  him 
(18) 


GREECE.  19 

physical  vigor  and  skill,  and  an  intensely  religious  dis- 
position. Similarly,  the  mother  educated  the  daughter 
into  a  skillful  and  virtuous  housewife.  Later,  at  the 
dawn  of  the  historical  age  of  Greece,  family  life  and 
family  education  were  lost  in  state  life  and  state  educa- 
tion. At  the  same  time,  the  Greeks  were,  from  the 
beginning  of  this  periDdj  divided  into  several  distinct 
and  frequently  hostile  tribes,  each  one  of  which  followed 
a  different  political  and  pedagogic  direction. 

It  is  true  that  in  Greece,  and  more  especially  in 
Athens,  the  human  powers  enjoyed  a  freer  development 
than  in  the  great  despotic  empires  of  the  East ;  but  the 
Greek,  too,  did  not  attain  his  highest  value  as  an  indi- 
vidual or  as  a  member  of  his  family,  but  only  as  a 
member  of  his  state.  The  independent  worth  of  man 
and  the  significance  of  domestic  life  were  never  appre- 
ciated in  Greece.  She  never  enjoyed  a  universal  edu- 
cation of  the  people ;  nay,  the  number  of  persons  fully 
free  and  entitled  to  unlimited  participation  in  national 
education  and  in  public  life  was  very  small,  compared 
with  the  number  of  the  partially  free/the  serfs  and 
slaves.  At  the  same  time,  we  have  positive  accounts 
only  from  the  Dorians  and  lonians  —  from  Sparta  and 
Athens  —  that  the  state  looked  upon  education  as  a 
public  concern. 

Even  the  approximate  data  of  the  invasion  and  con- 
quest of  the  southern  Peleponesus  by  the  Dorians  has 
been  lost.  Yet  this  is  established,  that  the  native  pop- 
ulation, probably  Acheans,  were  ever  after  held  in 
subjection.  Those  who  had  submitted  voluntarily  re- 
tained a  limited  part  of  their  lands  and  their  personal 
liberty,   but  had  no  share  in  the  government.     Those 


20  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

who  had  to  be  subdued  by  the  force  of  arms  were 
reduced  to  the  most  abject  slavery.  The  former  were 
distinguished  by  the  name  of  Pei^ioeci ;  the  latter  were 
the  Helots.  Neither  of  these  had  any  share  in  the 
political  economy  of  Sparta;  and  all  that  is  known  of 
Spartan  education  has  exclusive  reference  to  the  9,000 
families  of  the  conquerors,  who  constituted  a  supreme 
caste,  exercising  despotic  sway  over  their  unfortunate 
subjects.  But  within  this  ruling  caste  a  remarkable 
community  of  interests  prevailed  —  a  community  of 
interests  so  intense  that  all  individuality  was  crushed 
in  the  iron  grasp  of  the  social  fabric. 

The  principal  object  of  Spartan  education  was  the 
maintenance  of  the  existing  political  system,  the  per- 
petuation of  the  supremacy  of  the  ruling  class,  or  caste. 
Hence  physical  strength  and  warlike  skill  were  the 
leading  objective  points.  With  reference  to  the  subor- 
dinate castes,  Sparta's  education  was  aristocratic;  with 
reference  to  the  surrounding  states,  military.  The  code 
of  laws,  which  fixed  with  inflexible  vigor  all  the  details 
by  Avhich  this  aim  was  to  be  attained,  is  ascribed, 
mythically  perhaps,  to  Lycurgus,  whose  doubtful  exist- 
ence is  referred  to  the  ninth  century  before  Christ. 
This  code  regulates  even  marital  relations  in  every 
detail,  with  a  view  to  physically  vigorous  descendants. 
But  the  children  did  not  belong  to  the  parents;  they 
belonged  to  the  state.  The  new-born  infant  was 
brought  before  certain  oflicers  of  state,  and  if  it  was 
found  to  be  sickly  or  deformed,  it  was  not  permitted 
to  live. 

The  healthy  and  well-formed  boys  were  left  with 
their    parents    until    their    seventh    year,    where    they 


GREECE.  21 

were  brought  up  with  the  greatest  simplicity.  In 
their  seventh  year  they  were  removed  to  special  com- 
mon schools  or,  rather,  common  homes;  for  henceforth 
they  passed  their  youth  in  these.  In  their  eighteenth 
year  they  left  these  common  homes  and  entered  mili- 
tary service.  The  girls  were  left  in  the  parental  home, 
where  they  acquired,  under  the  mother's  direction,  the 
arts  of  spinning,  of  weaving,  and  of  controlling  slaves; 
they,  too,  however,  had  to  appear  at  stated  times  in 
public  places  for  gymnastic  exercises,  similar  to  those 
of  the  boys.  Indeed,  woman  occupied  among  the  Spar- 
tans a  much  higher  position  than  in  the  rest  of  Greece, 
as  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  the  Doric  tribe  can  boast 
of  quite  a  number  of  poetesses.  Her  physical  pre-emi- 
nence is  most  forcibly  indicated  in  one  of  the  plays 
of  Aristophanes,  where  an  Athenian  lady  exclaims  to 
a  Spartan  sister:  "How  beautiful  you  are!  how  fresh 
your  skin!  how  swelling  your  form!  you  could  strangle 
an  ox." 

The  gymnastic  exercises,  which  formed  the  principal 
burden  of  Spartan  education,  consisted  mainly  of  the 
celebrated  pentathlium,  or  live-fold  contest.  It  embraced 
leaping,  running,  wrestling,  throwing  of  the  javelin  or 
spear,  and  of  the  discus  or  quoit.  These  five  exercises 
formed  the  classical  cycle  of  gymnastics.  Brutal  boxing 
and  professional  athletics  are  not  found  before  the  de- 
cline of  Greece. 

Intellectual  culture  was  confined  in  Sparta  almost 
exclusively  to  music ;  and,  even  here,  the  burden  of  the 
songs  and  hj^mns  was  mainly  of  a  moral  and  religious 
character,  tending  to  arouse  and  to  strengthen  valor  and 
patriotism,  or  to  glorify  the  gods.     The  boys  and  youths 


22  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

were  instructed  in  the  use  of  the  seven-strinored  Ivre,  or 
cith_era,  and  were  taught  to  sing  singly  and  in  chorus, 
and  to  accompany  their  songs  with  rhythmical  marches 
and  dances.  Reading  and  writing  formed  no  part  of 
Spartan  education,  and  was  left  to  private  efforts  in 
leisure  hours.  There  was  a  little  rudimentary  arith- 
metic, and  a  little  astronomy ;  but  the  higher  arts  and 
sciences  found  no  home  here ;  and  oratory,  as  well  as 
the  drama,  was  prohibited.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
understanding  was  trained  with  great  care;  the  young 
were  taught  to  form  accurate  and  clear  ideas  about 
their  surroundings,  and  accustomed  to  brevity  and  con- 
densation of  expression  (laconism),  and  to  promptness 
in  answering.  At  the  same  time,  truthfulness,  simplic- 
ity, self-control,  and  well-nigh  absolute  self-denial,  were 
constantly  inculcated  by  example,  precept,  and  practice. 
In  short,  a  warlike  spirit,  military  fitness,  strength  of 
character,  reverence  for  the  gods,  and  patriotism,  were 
the  ultimate  ends  of  Spartan  education.  Science  and 
art,  as  well  as  heart-culture,  were  neglected.  The  Spar- 
tan was  the  limit  of  all  individual  progress;  to  go,  or 
even  to  aim  beyond  this,  was  in  many  cases  a  crime; 
in  all  cases,  distasteful. 

Such  an  organism  —  if,  indeed,  such  a  society  can  be 
honored  by  this  name  —  can  not  have  permanence,  and 
does  not  deserve  it,  however  perfect  it  may  appear  when 
viewed  absolutely.  Hence,  as  soon  as  she  had  shown 
her  power  in  the  Peloponnesian  war,  and  had  satisfied 
her  thirst  for  conquest,  Sparta  degenerated  and  lingered 
ingloriously  out  of  existence. 

Before  leaving  the  Dorian  system  of  education,  we 
must,  however,  throw  a  glance  upon  its  noblest  repre- 


GREECE.  23 

sentative,  Pythagoras.  He  was  born  on  the  island  of  ^ 
Samos,  about  the  year  570  B.  C.  Introduced  to  the  love 
of  wisdom  by  Thales,  Anaximander,  and  other  great 
men  of  his  time,  he  undertook  extensive  travels  in  Asia 
and  Egypt,  in  order  to  perfect  himself.  After  his  return, 
he  found  so  little  encouragement  among  his  Samian 
countrymen,  that  he  concluded  to  emigrate.  After  a 
short  stay  at  Creta,  where  he  was  initiated  into  the 
holy  mysteries,  and  at  Sparta,  where  he  became  familiar 
with  the  code  of  Lycurgus,  he  turned  to  the  Greek  colo- 
nies of  lower  Italy,  known  at  that  time  by  the  name  of 
Magna  Grsecia,  and  settled  in  the  city  of  Croton.  Here 
his  personal  appearance  and  eloquence,  as  well  as  his 
wisdom  and  virtue,  not  only  won  him  the  respect  and 
admiration  of  the  inhabitants,  but  enabled  him  to  ban- 
ish, as  by  charm,  all  kinds  of  vices  from  the  people,  and 
to  plant  in  their  stead  the  seeds  of  virtue. 

In  addition  to  his  lectures  to  the  adult  population, 
he  founded  here  a  great  school  for  the  education  of 
youth.  In  the  selection  of  his  pupils  he  Avas  exceed- 
ingly careful,  inquiring  minutely  into  all  the  details 
of  their  character  and  disposition,  especially  their  sus- 
ceptibility and  obedience.  The  school  itself  consisted 
of  two  courses,  the  exoteric  and  the  esoteric  course. 
The  time  of  education  comprised  usually  five  years, 
from  the  twelfth  to  the  seventeenth  year  of^age. 

During  the  first  three  years  the  pupils  \tere  in  the 
exoteric  course.  During  this  time  they  received  little 
direct  attention;  they  listened  and  obeyed,  learned 
what  they  were  taught,  and  wore  not  permitted  to  ask 
any  questions,  even  when  they  desired  explanation. 
The  master  delivered  his  discourses  to  the  esoterics  in 


24  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

a  room  separated  from  the  exoterics  by  a  curtain,  so 
that  the  latter  were  not  allowed  to  see  him  or  to  have 
personal  intercourse  with  him  during  the  hours  of  in- 
struction. At  the  end  of  the  three  years,  they  were 
subjected  to  a  rigid  examination,  and,  if  .they  proved 
to  be  sufficiently  docile,  if  their  powers  of  attention  and 
memory  enabled  them  to  follow  a  discourse,  if  they  had 
the  passions  under  full  control,  they  were  admitted  to 
the  esoteric  circle,  and  to  full  communion  with  the 
master.  The  pupils  spent  their  whole  time  at  the 
school,  and  formed  a  kind  of  family,  that  defrayed  its 
expenses  from  a  common  fund,  into  which  the  pupils 
deposited  their  fortunes  on  entering  the  school,  and 
which  was  administered  by  the  pupils  themselves, 
through  the  medium  of  officers  whom  they  selected. 

Although  Pythagoras  was  not  a  Dorian,  either  by 
birth  or  by  abode,  his  system  of  pedagogy  was  Doric  in 
the  purity  and  strictness  of  its  morals;  in  the  implicit 
obedience  it  required;  in  its  positive,  authoritative 
method:  in  the  scanty  diet  to  which  it  subjected  the 
pupils:  in  the  importance  given  to  gymnastics;  in  its 
seclusion  from  the  common  people;  in  its  aristocratic 
tendencies  throughout. 

In  the  school  itself,  religious  ceremonies  and  contem- 
plation occupied  an  important  place.  In  addition  to 
music,  mathematics,  physics,  geography,  and  meta- 
physics, were  the  favorite  pursuits  of  the  Pythago- 
reans. The  method  of  instruction  was  strictly  dog- 
matic. Knowledge  Avas  transmitted  in  short,  condensed 
sentencas,  which  invited  to  reflection  by  their  form,  as 
well  as  by  their  contents.  For  instance:  ''What  are 
the    islands    of   the    blest?"     "Sun    and    moon."     Or: 


GKEECE.  25 

"What  is  the  wisest  thing?"  "Measure  and  number." 
"  What  the  most  beautiful  ?  "  "  Harmony."  "  The  most 
powerful?"  "Intelligence."  "The  best?"  "Happi- 
ness." Or:  "The  beginning  is  one-half  of  the  whole." 
"The  ocean  is  a  tear."  "The  sound  of  a  metal  is  the 
voice  of  an  imprisoned  spirit."  Or  :  "  It  is  man's  duty 
to  marry  and  raise  children,  so  that  the  deity  may 
have  worshipers  and  servants." 

In  other  respects,  his  method  had  many  excellent 
features;  he  gave  little  at  one  time,  proceeded  in  strict 
continuity,  required  full  assimilation  of  the  given  ma- 
terial. On  the  other  hand,  he  did  not  seem  to  appre- 
ciate the  insufficiency  of  the  scientific  attainments 
of  his  time,  and  taught  many  mere  hypotheses  and 
fancies,  in  the  voice  of  a  prophet,  as  established  truths. 
The  f^iults  of  his  system  bore  their  legitimate  fruits 
after  the  death  of  the  great  master.  His  school  became, 
in  one  direction,  a  kind  of  political  club  with  aristo- 
cratic principles,  directing  its  efforts  against  the  liberty 
of  the  people.  In  another  direction,  it  became  an  arro- 
gant school-sect,  which,  with  its  secret  wisdom,  deemed 
itself  infinitely  superior  to  the  rest  of  mankind.  Thus 
it  aroused  the  distrust  and  hatred  of  the  citizens,  and 
died,  not  without  persecution,  about  300  years  B.  C.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  modern  pedagogy  has  pro  titled  by 
the  example  of  the  Pythagorean  school.  We  still  see, 
now  and  then,  vast  structures  raised  on  the  basis  of  a 
few  correct  ideas;  structures  in  which  all  knowledge 
and  all  wisdom  find  a  resting-place. 

As  the  Dorian  system  of  education  was  based,  in  its 
main  features,  upon  the  legislation  of  Lycurgus,  so 
Ionian  culture  rested  upon  a  code  of  laws  devised  by 

H.  P.-3. 


26  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

Solon,  f^olon  was  born  at  Athens  about  the  3^ear  689 
B.  C.  His  integrity,  his  wisdom,  his  justice  and  piety, 
his  humanity  and  patriotism,  gained  him  the  affection 
of  the  Athenians,  and,  about  the  year  594  B.  C,  he  was 
elected  chief  ruler  of  the  commonAvealth,  and  invested 
with  unlimited  dictatorial  power.  He  availed  himself 
of  his  position  to  give  to  Athens  a  social  and  political 
constitution,  ib}'^  far  less  aristocratic  than  that  of  the 
Spartans.  True,  it  left  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  in- 
habitants in  a  state  of  slavery,  less  intolerable,  however, 
than  that  of  the  Spartan  helots;  but  he  abolished  serf- 
dom for  debt,  by  which,  heretofore,  many  free-born  citi- 
zens had  lost  their  liberty.  It  is  true,  too,  that  he 
recognized  a  kind  of  aristocracy,  by  dividing  the  free 
citizens  into  four  classes;  but  it  depended  on  wealth 
and  not  on  birth,  so  that  the  free  citizens  of  the  lowest 
class  could,  by  means  of  energy  or  luck,  reach  the 
highest.  And  although  the  magistrates  could  be  se- 
lected only  from  the  three  higher  classes,  all  free  citi- 
zens took  part  in  the  sovereign  popular  assemblies  and 
in  the  juries;  so  that,  in  opposition  to  the  eminently 
and  thoroughly  aristocratic  Spartan  institutions,  the 
Athenians  could  boast  of  being  members  of  a  kind  of 
democratic  commonwealth.  On  the  whole,  his  laws 
set  no  limits  to  the  free  development  of  the  powers  of 
the  people,  and  favored  more  especially  intellectual 
progress. 

But  we  are  more  particularly  concerned  with  the 
educational  features  of  the  Athenian  republic.  Since 
the  character  of  a  state  depends  upon  the  character  of 
its  citizens,  Solon's  code  paid  much  attention  to  educa- 
tion.    He  considered  the  parents  as  the  masters  of  the 


GREECE.  27 

children,  but  prohibited  the  sale  of  girls,  which  was 
still  customary  among  the  Athenians.  He  did  not 
forbid  the  exposing  of  children,  but  the  humane  tend- 
encies of  the  Athenian  mind  —  due,  undoubtedly,  to 
his  wise  legislation  —  gradually  abrogated  this  inhuman 
practice. 

The  boys  were  to  learn  at  least  the  arts  of  swimming 
and  reading,  as  well  as  some  industrial,  agricultural,  or 
commercial  pursuit,  by  which  they  might  gain  their 
living.  He  recommended  the  wealthy,  at  the  same 
time,  to  have  their  sons  instructed  in  gymnastics, 
music,  mathematics,  poetry,  and  philosophy.  If  the 
father  failed  to  do  his  duty  in  the  education  of  his  son, 
he  had  no  claims  to  the  support  of  his  son  in  old  age ; 
while  all  well-educated  young  men  were  obliged  to  take 
care  of  their  parents,  and  forfeited  public  honor  and 
civil  rights  by  neglecting  this  duty.    - 

Athenian  education  was  a  common  affair  of  the  famil}^ 
and  of  the  state.  The  wealth,  insight,  and  good-will  of 
the  father  determined  to  what  extent  his  sons  might 
avail  themselves  of  public  or  private  "educational  insti- 
tutions. Compulsory  education,  like  that  of  our  time, 
did  not  exist;  the  state  was  satisfied  with  offering  to 
the  rising  male  population  gratuitous  instruction,  and 
with  exciting  in  all  parents  a  lively  interest  to  let  their 
sons  avail  themselves  of  this  instruction.  The  consti- 
tution of  the  state,  the  condition  of  industry  and  com- 
merce, the  numerous  public  monuments  of  art,  the 
character  of  religion,  the  theater,  the  publicity  of  polit- 
ical life  and  of  the  administration  of  justice,  the  absence 
of  all  castes,  and  the  fact  that  every  free-born  male  could 
work  his  way  to  the  highest  culture  and  to  the  highest 


28  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

offices,  conspired  to  the  universal  arousal  and  develop- 
ment of  intellectual  vigor;  and  no  citv  in  the  world  has 
done  as  much  as  Athens  for  the  culture  of  the  human 
race. 

Still  we  find  that  even  Athens  was  very  far  removed 
from  the  ideal  education  of  our  days.  In  the  first  place, 
the  children  of  the  slaves  were,  as  a  rule,  excluded  from 
the  education  of  the  free-born;  for  they  were  in  every 
respect  private  property,  and  had  no  share  in  public 
life.  With  reference  to  female  education,  Athens  was 
even  inferior  to  Sparta.  Unlike  the  Spartan  women, 
the  women  of  Athens  had  no  share  in  public  education, 
not  the  shadow  of  a  direct  influence  upon  public  con- 
cerns, and  very  little  authority  even  at  home;  they 
were  looked  upon  as  inferior  beings,  and  were  treated 
with  almost  Oriental  contempt. 

For  the  boys,  the  gymnasia  were  the  most  important 
educational  institutions.  They  were  public  places  and 
^  buildings  similar  to  the  gymnasia  of  Sparta.  Their 
expenses  were  defrayed  from  the  public  treasury,  and 
gymnastics  formed,  in  the  beginning  at  least,  their 
main  field  of  pedagogic  influence.  In  the  course  of 
time,  however,  they  became  the  centers  of  all  higher 
intellectual  life,  taking  in  every  respect  the  place  of 
our  high-schools  and  universities.  Still,  even  in  the 
beginning,  the  Athenians  laid  more  stress,  in  their 
gj^mnastic  courses,  upon  plastic  beauty,  while  the  Spar- 
tans were  satisfied  with  agility  and  strength. 

In  addition  we  find,  at  an  early  period,  elementary 
schools,  in  which  boys  from  seven  to  twelve  years  old 
were  taught  the  arts  of  reading  and  writing,  and  re- 
ceived instruction  in  literature  and  arithmetic;   these 


GREECE.  29 

were,  probably,  also  maintained  at  public  cost.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  these  elementary  schools  were 
especially  instrumental  in  adding  intellectual  culture 
to  the  curriculum  of  the  gymnasia,  which  became  the 
public  schools  for  the  boys  from  the  twelfth  year  of  age 
upward. 

For  reading,  the  elementary  schools  used  the  spelling 
method,  acquainting  the  pupil  first  with  the  letters, 
which  were  compounded  successively  into  syllables, 
words,  sentences.  Writing  consisted  in  mere  imitation 
of  set  copies.  Arithmetic  was  a  rare  accomplishment, 
few  progressing  beyond  the  art  of  counting  on  their 
fingers.  Higher  intellectual  culture  that  could  not  be 
found  in  the  elementary  schools  (pedagogiums)  or  gym- 
nasia, was  a  private  affair;  but  the  number  of  private 
schools  and  private  teachers,  show^s  that  it  was  the  de- 
sire and  purpose  of  a  vast  number  to  avail  themselves 
of  such  culture  for  their  sons.  During  leisure  hours  the 
boys  passed  their  time  in  the  company  of  their  parents, 
or  engaged  in  social  games  similar  to  those  in  which 
our  boys  delight  to-day,  where  the  military  drill  system 
of  the  school  and  police  regulations  are  not  in  the  way. 

Athenian  education  aimed  at  a  harmonious  develop- 
ment of  all  the  powers;  it  would  produce  independence 
of  character,  self-confidence  ;  it  required  careful  observa- 
tion of  circumstances  and  of  persons,  vigor  and  prudence, 
energy  and  wisdom ;  it  would  make  the  Athenian  patri- 
otic and  brave,  a  lover  of  liberty  and  of  virtue,  of  science 
and  art,  of  the  good  and  the  beautiful. 

Yet  their  education  had  one  great  fault,  suffered  from 
one  great  falsehood,  as  it  were^  w^hich  ultimately  caused 
its  decay:    it  was  thoroughly  particularistic.     Not  the 


30  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

harmoniously  developed,  aesthetically  cultivated,  beauti- 
ful and  good  human  being  was  its  aim;  but  the  Athe- 
nian, or,  at  best,  the  Greek.  Their  education  lacked  a 
high  moral  ideal  of  pure  humanity. 

Nations  whose  education  has  this  fault,  no  matter 
how  perfect  they  may  be  in  other  respects,  always  die, 
and  ought  to  die.  Nations,  as  well  as  individuals,  that 
aim  at  ideals  which  they  can  attain,  ultimately  cease  to 
progress ;  or,  in  other  words,  begin  to  perish  as  soon  as 
the  ideals  are  reached. 


LECTURE   HI. 

GREECE  :     SOCRATES  —  PLATO  —  ARISTOTLE. 

The  elements  of  decay,  mentioned  at  the  close  of  the 
last  lecture,  did  not  exist  in  the  principles  and  practice 
of  a  few  gifted  teachers,  among  whom  I  shall  single  out 
for  rapid  review  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Aristotle.  There 
was  so  much  of  the  purely  humane  in  these  great  men, 
that,  even  to-day,  they  stand  out  as  brilliant  examples 
of  wisdom  and  virtue,  as  earnest  searchers  after  truth, 
unbiased  b}-  national  or  other  prejudices. 

So  far,  indeed,  was  Socrates  in  advance  of  his  country- 
men in  this  respect,  that  the  very  ideas  which  have 
secured  him  immortality  among  men,  and  the  grateful 
reverence  of  every  lover  of  truth,  were  looked  upon  by 
the  Athenians  as  a  crime  punishable  with  death.  Soc- 
rates was  born  at  Athens  about  469  B.  C.  He  learned  in 
his  youth  the  art  of  his  father,  a  sculptor,  but  devoted 
himself  afterward  to  philosophy.  He  fought  creditably 
in  several  campaigns  of  the  Peloponesian  war,  and  on 
his  return,  secured  against  want  by  a  small  fortune,  he 
devoted  his  riper  years  to  the  public  service  —  to  the 
study  and  instruction  of  youth  and  men  in  search  of 

(31) 


32  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

knowledge.  His  stern  morality  and  fearless  love  of 
truth  gave  offense  to  the  corrupt  party  that  controlled 
the  state;  he  was  accused  of  contempt  of  the  gods,  and 
of  misleading  the  youth  of  the  city,  condemned  to  death, 
and  drank  the  cup  of  hemlock  in  the  year  400  B.  C. 

Interesting  as  his  philosoj^hical  system  is,  we  must 
pass  it  by,  in  order  to  devote  our  time  to  that  which 
concerns  us  more  particularly  —  his  method.  Suffice  it 
to  state  that,  starting  with  a  firm  conviction  that  one 
all-wise,  all-loving  God  reveals  himself  in  the  reason 
and  conscience  of  man,  and  that  the  soul  of  man  is  im- 
mortal, the  great  aim  of  his  philosophy  is  self-knoAvl- 
edge;  that  he  refers  all  knowledge  to  this  —  to  human 
lifej.  that  he  eschews  all  belief  in  authority,  and  accepts 
as  knowledge  only  what  is  proved;  that  he  looks  upon 
self-knowledge  as  the  only  source  of  true  insight,  and 
upon  this  as  the  only  source  of  true  virtue  and  happi- 
ness. To  lead  men  to  a  love  of  knowledsre,  of  truth,  to 
assist  them  in  their  search  after  self-knowledge,  was  for 
him  the  noblest  occupation,  the  one  by  which  he  could 
confer  the  greatest  benefit  upon  his  community :  to  him 
teaching  was  a  divine  calling. 

His  method  was  conversational  and,  at  least  so  far  as 
the  subject  in  dispute  was  concerned,  developing.  He 
did  not  start  with  definitions  and  theorems,  in  order  to 
deduce  from  them,  and  to  classify  with  their  aid  the 
concrete  phenomena  of  the  world  and  of  human  life; 
but  he  led  inductively  from  concrete  facts  and  examples 
to  ideas  and  convictions  of  higher  orders.  He  did  not 
present  to  the  learner  finished  systems,  but  he  placed 
himself  upon  the  stand-point  of  the  learner, ^induced 
him  to  express  his  ideas  accurately ;   if  the  latter  Avere 


GREECE.  33 

correct,  he  confirmed  them  by  new  illustrations  and 
developments;  if  they  were  incorrect,  he  showed  tiieir 
absurdity  by  first  admitting  them,  and  then  leading  tlie 
learner  to  the  legitimate  consequences  of  the  erroneous 
idea.  This  he  accomplished  by  skillful  questioning, 
throwing  the  burden  of  thought  upon  the  learner,  who 
was  delighted  to  find  himself  apparently  assisting  the 
beloved  and  respected  teacher  in  the  search  for  truth, 
and  who  gathered  new  strength  from  every  new  error 
which  he  discovered  in  his  reasonings,  aided  by  the 
incomparable  socraiic  irony. 

Ideas  should  not,  according  to  him,  be  implanted 
from  without,  but  logically  developed  from  within; 
they  should  grow,  as  it  were,  in  the  self-active  mind 
of  the  learner,  until  they  are  sufficiently  clear  to  be 
expressed,  sufficiently  advanced  to  be  horn.  Hence  he 
loved  to  compare  his  art  with  that  of  the  obstetrician, 
in  which  his  mother  had  been  an  adept;  and  he  con- 
sidered aptness  to  teach  immeasurably  more  important 
in  the  teacher  than  mere  positive  or  material  knowl- 
edge, which  may  be  accumulated  in  the  weakest  brain. 

Of  himself  he  said:  "Properly  speaking,  I  have  never 
been  anj'  body's  teacher;  but  if  any  one  desired  to  hear 
what  I  said,  I  have  never  begrudged  him,  nor  asked  how 
old  he  was.  Also,  I  do  not  instruct  only  for  money,  but 
I  am  equally  ready  to  converse  with  rich  and  poor,  and 
whoever  wishes  it,  may  answer  and  hear  what  I  have  to 
say ....  But  if  any  one  maintains  that  he  has  learned 
cr  heard  something  from  me,  especially  what  all  of  you 
have  not  heard,  you  may  know  that  he  does  not  speak 
the  truth."  By  this,  undoubtedly,  he  would  imply  that 
what  his  pupils  knew  they  had  learned  by  their  own 


34  HISTORY  OF  pp:i)agogy. 

self-active  efforts,  and  that  he  had  only  aided  them  in 
becoming  conscious  of  their  ideas. 

Unlike  Pythagoras,  he  liad  not  a  closed  school,  but 
conversed  freely  with  all  who  wanted  to  listen  to  him 
or  to  answer  him,  at  all  times  and  in  all  places.  A  few 
young  men,  who  seemed  suitable  to  him  by  personal 
appearance,  age,  and  ability,  he  attached  to  himself  as 
special  pupils,  tjiat  attended  him  more  regularly,  and 
whom  he  instructed  and  improved  by  wise  words  and 
blameless  example. 

Although  he  was  not  a  teacher  of  children,  his  method 
is,  nevertheless,  the  true  one  even  for  elementary  train- 
ing; for  inasmuch  as  it  insists  upon  the  arousing  of  self- 
activity  on  the  part  of  the  learner,  and  proceeds  induc- 
tively, it  contains  the  germs  of  the  developing  method, 
which  is  gradually  and  surely,  with  the  slowness  and 
irrepressibility  of  truth,  working  its  way  into  our 
schools. 

The  teaching  and  life  of  Socrates  had  made  a  deep 
impression  upon  his  pupils ;  but,  as  might  be  expected, 
few  of  them  succeeded  in  comprehending  the  master  in 
his  vast  universality.  The  majority  of  them  took  a 
one-sided  view  of  him ;  had  become  dazzled,  as  it  were, 
by  one  flash  of  his  brilliant  genius,  and  had  been  com- 
paratively blinded  to  the  rest.  At  the  same  time,  the 
method  of  Socrates  tended  to  strengthen  their  individu- 
ality, and  to  transform  their  zeal  into  enthusiasm,  so 
that  a  number  of  them  became  the  founders  of  one-sided 
schools  of  philosophy.  Thus  Antisthenes  founded  the 
cynical  school,  which  sought  virtue  and  happiness  in 
the  absence  of  wants,  and  which  Diogenes  reduced  to 
absurdity  by  a  sort  of  practical  socratic  irony.     On  the 


GREECE.  35 

other  hand,  Aristippus  and  his  followers,  the  Cyrenians, 
held  that  pleasure  was  the  only  good  and  pain  the  only 
evil,  and  that,  therefore,  pleasure  was  the  highest  object 
of  pursuit.  Again,  Euclid  and  Stilpo  established  the 
Megarian  school,  which  attached  undue  importance  to 
dialectics,  the  art  of  debating,  and  which  was  lost  ulti- 
mately in  formalism. 

Fortunately,  however,  there  was  among  the  pupils  of 
Socrates  one  genius  who  comprehended  him  in  all  his 
fullness  and  universality ;  who  had  the  power,  as  one 
of  his  critics  remarks,  of  collecting  in  a  focus  the 
scattered  rays  of  truth  proceeding  from  the  master, 
and  of  forming  them  into  a  system  of  philosophy. 
This  genius  is  Plato. 

Plato  was  born  429  years  B.  C,  at  Athens,  from  a  good 
family;  indeed,  Codrus  and  Solon  are  named  among  his 
ancestors.  He  was  educated  with  great  care.  He  took 
great  delight  in  painting  and  poetry,  until  he  became 
acquainted  with  Socrates  in  his  twentieth  year,  when 
he  began  to  devote  himself  exclusively  to  the  study  of 
philosoph3^  After  the  death  of  Socrates,  he  visited  the 
school  of  Euclid,  at  Megara;  went  subsequently  to 
Cyrene  and  to  Egypt,  and  ultimately  to  lower  Italy  and 
Sicily,  in  order  to  become  familiar  with  the  Pythagorean 
school.  In  his  fortieth  year  he  returned  to  Athens, 
where  he  passed  the  rest  of  his  days,  with  a  few  short 
interruptions,  in  the  academy,  in  the  circle  of  devoted 
pupils.  He  died  348  B.  C,  in  the  eighty-first  year  of 
his  life. 

Plato  has  never  exercised  any  influence  upon  educa- 
tional practice,  but  he  was  the  first  to  make  the  theory 
of  education  the  subject  of  strictly  scientific  inquiry; 


36  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

and  this  is,  for  us,  his  great  merit.  Inasmuch  as  he 
was  still  a  Greek,  and,  by  birth  and  the  Doric  influence 
of  Magna  Gra^cia,  an  aristocrat,  his  educational  system 
has  many  faults,  which  our  time,  nearer  to  pure  hu- 
manity than  his,  can  only  deprecate. 

Thus  he,  too,  merged  the  individual  and  even  the 
family  in  the  state,  and  looked  upon  education  as  the 
exclusive  concern,  the  privilege  and  duty  of  the  state. 
He  considered  the  objects  and  the  power  of  the  state 
binding  for  every  individual,  and  denied  to  parents  all 
control  over  their  children.  He  favored,  in  his  Republic, 
a  sort  of  caste  in  which  the  pliilosophers,  as  rulers  of  the 
state,  occupied  the  first  rank,  and  were  supported  by  the 
guardians  of  the  state,  or  warriors.  The  comforts  of  life 
were  to  be  supplied  by  the  artisans  and  farmers,  and  by 
the  slaves,  who  were  denied  the  benefits  of  an  education. 
Women  were  important  to  him  only  as  the  mothers  of 
future  generations,  and  were  in  every  other  respect 
considered  as  inferior  beings. 

On  the  other  liand,  he  shows  that  education  is  the 
noblest  and  most  important  of  all  callings.  He  insists 
upon  harmonious  culture,  keeping  the  physical  and 
intellectual  development  in  proper  balance :  because  an 
organism  in  which  the  intellect  prevails  over  the  body 
is  exposed  to  dangerous,  na}^  fatal  morbid  irregulari- 
ties ;  and  an  organism  in  which  great  physical  strength 
is  combined  with  a  weak  mind,  is  sure  to  perish  from 
the  worst  of  all  diseases,  ignorance.  He  bestows  the 
greatest  care  upon  moral  training,  and  would  banish 
from  the  productions  of  plastic  art  and  of  poetry  every 
thing  that  might  mislead  reason  or  corrupt  morality. 

His  practical  directions  are  built  consistently  upon  this 


GREECE.  37 

basis.  They  have  the  great  merit  of  forming  the  first 
complete,  harmonious  system  — a  machinery  whose  gear- 
ing is  perfect.  But  since  they  never  exerted  any  direct 
influence  upon  practical  education,  and  since  all  their 
features  that  bear  upon  the  history  of  the  developing 
method  have  been  mentioned  in  the  second  lecture  and 
in  the  review  of  Socrates,  I  make  haste  to  pass  to  the 
next  and  greater  hero  of  Greek  education,  the  great 
Stagirite,  Aristotle,  whose  universality  and  comprehen- 
siveness, whose  advanced  liberality  and  humanity, 
whose  mental  vigor  and  energy  have  earned  him  the 
surname  "  Alexander  of  the  intellectual  world." 

Aristotle  was  born  384  B.  C,  at  Stagira,  in  Macedon. 
In  his  seventeenth  year  he  became  a  pupil  of  Plato  at 
Atliens,  and  remained  with  him  for  twenty  years.  His 
industry,  zeal,  and  success  were  so  great  that  Plato  is 
said  to  have  called  him  the  "philosopher  of  truth,"  and 
"the  soul  of  his  school."  At  a  later  period  the  two  great 
men  became,  however,  estranged,  probably  on  account 
of  the  differences  in  their  modes  and  fields  of  thought. 
Plato  was  the  philosopher  of  the  ideal;  Aristotle,  of  the 
real:  Plato  started  Avith  general  ideas,  and  ignored 
nature;  Aristotle  held  fast  to  nature,  investigated  its 
laws,  keeping  aloof  from  all  arbitrary  hypotheses  and 
speculations :  Plato  had  been  well-nigh  absorbed  by  the 
Pythagorean  method  of  deducing  particulars  from  gen- 
erals; Aristotle  had  returned  to  the  method  of  Socrates, 
and  aimed  to  proceed  from  particulars  to  generals.  What 
wonder  if  the  two  natures  became  estranged? 

In  his  mature  age  Aristotle  became  the  teacher  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  but  returned  afterward  to  Athens, 
where  he  devoted  himself  to  study,  to  writing,  and  to 


38 


HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 


higher  instruction  in  the  Lyceum.  After  a  stay  of 
thirteen  years,  he  was  accused  of  impiety  by  a  promi- 
nent Athenian,  who  alleged  that,  in  a  poem  to  his 
murdered  friend  Hermias,  he  worshiped  the  latter  as  a 
god.  He  fled  on  this  account  to  Chalcis,  on  the  island 
of  Euboea,  where  he  died  322  B.  C,  in  the  sixty-second 
year  of  his  age. 

His  numerous  writings  show  that  he  was  master  of 
all  the  realms  of  knowledge  of  his  time  to  an  extraor- 
dinary extent,  and  that  he  increased  the  scope  of  all. 
Indeed,  his  writings  became  the  principal  and,  in  many 
respects,  the  exclusive  source  of  the  higher  culture  of 
antiquity  and  of  the  middle  ages.  Proceeding  analytic- 
ally on  the  secure  foundation  of  experience,  of  reality, 
he  almost  created  natural  science  and  logic,  and  estab- 
lished ethics,  political  economy,  and  anthropology  on  a 
scientific  basis.  His  pedagogy  is  based  on  knowledge 
of  human  nature ;  it  forms,  even  to-day,  a  fair  criterion 
of  education;  for  he  is  much  more  liberal,  much  more 
humane,  much  less  Greek,  much  nearer  to  the  broad, 
cosmopolitan  views  of  our  days,  than  his  predecessors 
and  cotemporaries. 

He  still  looks  upon  tlie  state  as  the  highest  exponent 
of  human  life;  but  he  recognizes,  too,  the  dignity  of  the 
family,  and  even  of  the  individual,  whose  happiness  is 
the  only  legitimate  object  of  the  state.  He  still  con- 
siders it  the  duty  of  the  state  to  secure  the  education 
of  the  young  in  the  aggregate;  but  in  all  details  he  asks 
for  free  development,  untrammeled  by  petrified  legisla- 
tion ;  and  he  pronounces  positively  against  the  omnipo- 
tence of  the  state  in  educational  affairs.  He  still  ac- 
knowledges slavery  and  the  inferiority  of  women ;  but 


GREECE.  39 

he  educates  the  former  and  grants  the  latter  equality, 
at  least  in  the  family. 

He  claims  that  the  character  of  man  depends  on 
nature,  habit,  and  instruction.  Habit  and  instruction 
constitute  education.  They  should  always  be  together, 
but  so  that  habit  precedes.  Habit  is  to  prepare  the 
mind  for  the  ethical  instruction.  Only  where  there 
are  good  habitSy--principtesfC'an  have  an  ennobling  in- 
fluence. But,  in  all  cases,  education  must  aim  with 
nature  at  rational  and  harmonious  perfection  of  all  the 
powers  of  the  child.  The  physical  life  of  the  child 
must  be  developed  with  care,  and  subjected  to  a 
rational  discipline;  the  intellectual  powders  must  be 
trained  in  all  directions;  but  the  highest  aim  of  edu- 
cation is  found  in  the  ethical  refinement  of  the  young 
human  being,  in  guiding  him  to  justice,  truthfulness, 
charity,  self-control,  firmness  of  character,  etc.  Again, 
in  all  educational  efforts,  the  individuality  of  the  pupil 
is  to  be  taken  into  account,  as  the  most  important 
factor  in  the  final  result. 

The  opposition  of  Aristotle's  views  to  those  of  Plato 
extends  also  to  the  curriculum  of  study.  Plato  attaches 
great  importance  to  mathematics,  because  it  leads  from 
the  concrete  to  the  abstract,  from  the  real  to  the  ideal; 
Aristotle  assigns  a  subordinate  place  "to  it,  because  it 
has  no  bearing  upon  the  ethical  nature  of  man.  Plato 
opposes  poets  and  artists,  ^vhom  Aristotle  commends. 
In  opposition  to  Plato,  Aristotle  insists  upon  the  study 
of  history  as  an  important  branch  of  instruction,  and 
deprecates  mythical  lore,  for  which  Plato  has  great 
respect.  Plato  sought  religion  in  the  ceremonies; 
Aristotle  found  it  in  the  heart  of  man. 


40  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

The  sketch  of  this  great  man  —  it  would  be  unjust 
to  call  him  merely  a  great  Greek  —  would  lack  a  very 
important  element  of  completeness,  were  I  to  ignore  a 
few  directions  which  he  gives  for  pedagogic  practice  — 
for  method  of  teaching.  At  the  head  of  these  stands 
the  principle  that,  in  all  instruction,  in  ever}-  inves- 
tigation, we  must  start  from  known  truths,  known 
concepts  or  facts  within  our  personal  experience.  Does 
this  not  remind  us  of  Pestalozzi?  Again,  he  teaches 
that  learning  is  naturally  agreeable,  and  he  enables 
his  pupils  to  find  pleasure  in  it  by  arousing  their 
own  activity  —  their  self-activity,  as  Froebel  would  say. 
He  condemns  violent  phj'sical  exercises,  athletic  sport 
for  the  young;  in  music  (singing),  he  would  keep 
within  the  scope  of  the  voice ;  grammatical  instruction 
he  bases  upon  reading.  Perhaps  many  a  school  man 
of  our  days  could  learn  pedagogic  wisdom  fi'om  Aris- 
totle;  perhaps  man}^  a  school  of  our  days  would  make 
great  strides  toward  the  developing  method  of  educa- 
tion, would  make  stronger  individualities,  better  and 
happier  men  and  women,  if  it  were  to  adopt  the 
Aristotelian  principles  of  teaching. 

Socrates  be;j,an  the  study  of  the  Greeks  as  human 
beings  —  indeed,  to  him,  who  had  traveled  so  little, 
they  were  the  human  race  —  and  found  a  confused 
mass  of  scattered  truths.  These,  Plato  arranged  juvI 
united  in  a  beautiful,  harmonious  system.  But  it  was 
a  specifically  Greek  system;  it  would  monopolize  truth 
for  Greece;  it  would  make  the  Greeks  a  superior  race, 
better  and  happier,  it  is  true,  than  the  barbarians,  but 
better  and  happier  at  their  expense ;  it  would  cut  the 
isthmus  of  Corinth,  and  make  the  Peloponesus  the  abode 


GREECE.  41 

of  a  sort  of  human  gods  or  of  god-like  human  beings; 
a  kind  of  temple  which  the  barbarians  could  approach 
only  as  worshipers,  and  enter  as  slaves.  Then  there 
came,  in  time,  from  beyond  the  isthmus,  the  great 
Stagirite  who  defeated  the  selfish  project,  and  con- 
quered the  great  wisdom  of  the  little  community  for 
the  world. 

Aristotle  is  the  connecting  link  between  Greek  civ- 
ilization and  the  European  civilization  of  later  periods; 
through  him  and  because  of  him,  Greek  civilization 
expanded  into  European  civilization,  and  into  the  cos- 
mopolitan civilization  of  our  days  —  the  civilization 
that  asks  not  after  nationality,  or  birth,  or  station,  or 
sex,  but  that  would  unite  all  human  beings  in  one 
great  brother-  and  sisterhood  of  strong  individuals, 
whose  equal  duty  is  virtue,  whose  equal  privilege  is 
happiness. 


H.  p.— 4. 


LECTURE   IV. 

ROME  :     NUMA    POMPILIUS  —  GENF^RAL    CHARACTERISTICS 

ADVE^'T   OF   GREEK    CULTURE  —  CICERO  — 
SENECA  —  QUINTILIAN. 

The  educational  history  of  the  Romans  is  not  so 
brilliant  as  that  of  the  Greeks.  Still  they  occupy  an 
important  place  in  the  history  of  pedagogy,  inasmuch 
as  they  preserved,  to  some  extent,  the  Grecian  achieve- 
ments; inasmuch  as  they  developed  the  utilitarian 
side  of  education;  but  more  especially  because  they  did 
much  by  their  institutions,  although  unintentionalh', 
for  the  emancipation  of  the  female  portion  of  mankind, 
because  they  began,  in  this  respect,  the  work  which 
our  own  country  is  destined  to  complete. 

In  the  mj^thical  history  of  Rome,  Numa  Pompilius 
occupies  a  position  similar  to  the  one  of  Lycurgus  in 
the  history  of  Sparta.  Like  Lycurgus,  Numa  Pompilius 
is  looked  upon,  in  the  traditions  of  his  people,  as  the 
fouiider  of  the  state-  and  of  national  ethics.  He  made 
p^  religion  the  soul  and  guardian  of  civilization.  The 
property  and  life  of  the  citizens  were  in  the  protection 
of  the  gods;  heavenly  powers  guarded  all  relations  of 
(42) 


romp:.  43 

life  —  matrimony,  the  family,  society,  commerce,  agri- 
culture, politics.  Such  a  system  was  not  without  its 
dangers ;  for  in  regulating  the  worship  of  the  various 
deities,  and  in  establishing  and  incorporating  a  number 
of  separate  priesthoods,  he  introduced  the  system  of 
state  religion,  which  still  exercises  its  baneful  influ- 
ence on  European  civilization,  even  in  England.  But 
the  sound  common  sense  of  the  Romans  never  allowed 
priesthood  the  exercise  of  a  decisive  influence  upon 
education,  nor  its  exclusive  management. 

Numa's  predecessor,  Romulus,  had  founded  and  es- 
tablished the  state,  and  secured  it  against  the  hostili- 
ties of  neighbors.  Numa  would  make  peaceable  citizens 
of  the  warlike  inhabitants  of  the  city;  he  would,  for 
this  purpose,  strengthen  and  ennoble  the  ties  of  domes- 
tic, social,  and  political  life,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
procure  a  firm  foundation  for  prosperity  and  morality 
by  enhancing  the  interests  of  agriculture  and  of  the 
trades.  His  position  and  his  personal  virtues,  as  well 
as  the  comparative  smallness  of  the  young  state,  favored 
his  efforts. 

All  the  various  ranks  and  trades,  instituted  by  him, 
rest  on  one  common  ethical  basis,  of  which  patriotism 
is  the  main  center.  However,  all  invidious  distinctions 
of  rank  yielded,  in  the  course  of  time,  before  the  con- 
sistent opposition  of  the  plebeians  against  the  privileges 
of  the  patricians,  and  made  room  for  civil  equality  of 
all  citizens.  Still,  slavery  was  maintained  by  Rome 
always,  and  even  extended,  in  such  a  way  as  to  render 
it  the  darkest  stain  in  her  much-praised  humanity, 
which,  indeed,  never  reached  in  Rome  the  high  standard 
that  Numa's  institutions  might  lead  us  to  expect.    The 


44  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

long  struggle  for  existence  in  the  beginning,  and,  after- 
ward, the  ambitious  strife  for  the  supremacy  of  the 
world,  led  the  people  more  and  more  astray  from  the 
peaceable  j^aths  and  humane  aims  of  Numa. 

The  life  of  the  Romans,  and  hence,  too,  their  educa- 
tion, was  decidedly  practical,  utilitarian  in  its  nature; 
it  was  guided  by  considerations  of  necessity,  utility, 
and  expediency.  The  ideality  of  the  Athenians,  the 
unbroken  serenity  of  life,  the  harmonious  culture  of 
man  for  its  own  sake,  the  universal  development  of 
beauty  found  no  home  in  the  Roman  mind.  The 
Romans  had  no  liberal  gjmmastics,  nor  a  purely  in- 
tellectual culture;  physical  and  mental  development 
were  not  in  themselves  aims,  but  only  means  to  make 
a  living,  to  become  fit  for  civil  and  military  service. 
Sober  reason  decided  whether  a  thing  was  useful  or 
not;  and  only  what  appeared  useful  was  carried  on 
within  the  narrow  limits  of  usefulness.  Agriculture, 
the  mechanic  arts,  military  service,  and  swimming 
offered  sufficient  opportunities  for  physical  exercise. 
Art  was  esteemed  only  on  account  of  its  beauty;  it 
labored  for  the  wants  of  daily  life,  of  the  state,  of 
public  worship;  but  its  sesthetic  independence,  its 
freedom  in  the  realms  of  fancy,  was  not  recognized. 
Sciences,  too,  were  carried  on  as  far  as  they  were 
l^ractical:  jurisprudence  and  Roman  history,  because 
they  served  to  regulate  civil  and  political  life;  agri- 
culture, because  it  taught  how  to  increase  the  yield 
of  the  soil.  The  candidates  for  public  service  studied 
rhetoric,  because  it  was  essential  to  success. 

The  ethics  of  the  old  Romans  was  distinguished  by 
purity  and  high   virtue.     Roman  youths  were  trained 


KO.ME.  45 

very  early  in  obedience  and  loyalty,  in  frugality  and 
self-control,  in  energy  and  perseverance,  in  fidelity  and 
justice.  But  the  Romans,  like  all  other  nations  of 
antiquity,  had  never  risen  to  a  recognition  of  human 
rights  and  human  duties;  their  virtues  were  confined 
to  their  intercourse  with  fellow-citizens;  and  Roman 
patriotism  superseded  the  laws  of  humanity;  they  were 
always  Romans,  right  or  wrong;  they  were  Romans 
first,  Romans  last,  Romans  forever.  Hence  their  whole 
history  is  characterized  by  harshness,  and  even  cruelty 
and  violence;  by  an  insatiable  passion  for  conquest; 
by  a  constant  pursuit  of  material  advantages;  by  an 
endless  chase  after  the  external  blessings  of  life.  But, 
while  Numa  had  based  the  acquisition  of  these  upon 
honest  labor,  the  Romans  of  later  periods — not  unlike 
the  gentlemen  of  our  time  —  sought  a  maximum  of 
gain  Avith  a  minimum  of  labor.  At  the  same  time, 
an  inordinate  desire  for  enjoyments  of  the  grossest 
kind,  the  most  shameless  profligacy,  took  the  place  of 
the  Roman  frugality  of  earlier  periods.  Religion  de- 
generated into  mere  routine  service  with  the  jjeople, 
into  a  trade  with  the  priests,  into  a  political  engine 
with  the  statesmen.  In  short,  Numa's  spirit  gradually 
fled  from  all  spheres  of  Roman  life. 

About  the  middle  of  the  third  century  B.  C,  Greek 
culture  was  introduced  in  Rome,  and  the  wealthy 
Romans  made  rapid  strides  in  science  and  art.  But 
it  was  Greek  science  and  art,  and  the  Greeks  were 
already  a  degenerate  people.  With  foreign  culture 
they  imported,  too,  foreign  vices;  and  they  were 
equally  ready  and  apt  in  acquiring  the  latter,  thus 
accelerating    the    political    and    moral    decline    of    the 


46  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

proud  commonwealth,  and  verifying  the  prophecy  of 
the  stern  Cato,  ^Yho  wrote  to  his  son  about  the  close 
of  the  second  century  B.  C. :  "  Believe  me,  as  if  a 
prophet  had  said  it,  that  the  Greeks  are  a  worthless 
and  incorrigible  race.  If  this  people  diffuse  its  litera- 
ture among  us,  it  will  corrupt  every  thing." 

In  the  educational  practice  of  ancient  Rome,  the 
family  occupied  the  highest  place.  The  father  was 
unlimited  master  of  the  family;  in  his  hands  rested 
even  the  life  and  death  of  the  children ;  a  power  which 
was,  however,  mitigated  by  the  great  consideration 
accorded  to  the  mother  of  the  family  —  the  matron. 
For  a  number  of  years  the  care  of  the  children  was 
the  almost  exclusive  province  of  the  Roman  mother. 
She  attended  not  only  to  their  physical  wants,  but 
formed  their  language,  their  ideas,  their  moral  senti- 
ments and  principles,  their  religious  feelings.  She 
was,  to  a  great  extent,  what  Pestalozzi  would  have 
the  modern  mother  become.  In  the  course  of  time, 
slavery  extended  its  pernicious  influence  even  upon 
the  Roman  mothers;  they,  too,  were  affected  by  the 
general  corruption  of  Roman  ethics,  and  the  system 
of  nurses  became  so  universal  that  only  the  poorest 
mothers  nursed  their  children  themselves. 

Next  to  the  mother,  the  father  occupied  the  most 
important  place  in  Roman  family  education.  By  his 
greater  authority  he  sustained  the  pedagogic  labors  of 
the  mother.  While  she  was  principally  concerned  with 
the  physical  and  ethical  training  of  the  children,  and 
with  the  practical  instruction  of  the  daughters,  the 
father  busied  himself  with  the  intellectual  culture, 
more  particularly,  of  the  boys,  whom  he  made  familiar 


ROME.  •  47 

with  the  gods  of  the  family  and  of  the  state,  with  the 
history  and  constitution  of  the  commonwealth,  with 
civil  and  social  institutions;  and  whom  he  prepared 
for  some  profession  or  trade.  Of  course,  this  instruction 
was  neither  systematic  nor  based  upon  books,  but  ap- 
pealed exclusively  to  the  experience,  the  powers  of  ob- 
servation, the  common  sense  and  memory  of  the  boy. 

When  the  arts  of  reading  and  writing  —  which,  in 
the  beginning,  only  very  few  children  had  learned 
from  their  fathers  —  became  more  necessary,  a  sort  of 
jiublic  school  was  established  and  attended  even  by 
girls;  and  when  Greek  culture  came  to  conquer  the 
state  that  had  conquered  Greece,  a  host  of  teachers 
taught  Greek  and  Latin  grammar,  rhetoric,  literature, 
philosophy,  music,  and  other  sciences  and  arts.  Still, 
education  never  became  a  concern  of  the  state,  but  was 
left  entirely  to  private  and  corporate  enterprise ;  so  that 
the  children  of  the  poor  learned  little  or  nothing,  for 
want  of  time  and  money.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
wealthier  houses  attached  to  the  persons  of  their  chil- 
dren quite  a  retinue  of  pedagogues,  who  were  selected 
from  the  slaves  of  the  household,  or  hired  from  the 
ranks  of  educated  persons  that  had  failed  in  other 
callings,  or  lacked  energy  to  engage  in  other  pursuits. 

Among  the  Roman  writers  on  education  before  the 
Christian  era,  Terentius  Varro  occupied,  undoubtedly,  a 
high  rank;  but  his  productions,  although  quite  numer- 
ous, have  been  lost,  or  are  preserved  in  so  fragmentary 
a  condition  that  it  is  impossible  to  obtain  a  clear  in- 
sight into  his  views.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  he 
attached  much  importance  to  early  education,  as  exer- 
cising the  greatest   influence  upon  life;  and  that  he 


48  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

advocates  a  mild  discipline,  since  harshness  neutralizes 
instruction,  and  since  the  latter  can  thrive  only  if  the 
learner  finds  his  task  a  pleasant  one. 

The  rhetorical  and  philosophical  works  of  the  great 
Cicero,  the  father  of  modern  classical  prose,  contain  a 
number  of  ideas  on  education,  with  special  reference  to 
the  training  of  the  orator.  He  looks  upon  education  as 
the  process  by  which  the  natural  talents  of  man  are 
perfected,  and  upon  virtue  as  its  ultimate  aim.  He 
would  have  the  teacher  mild,  strict,  and  just.  Punish- 
ment, in  word  or  deed,  must  never  degrade,  and  must 
never  be  administered  in  anger.  He  attaches  great 
importance  to  religion,  as  a  means  of  moral  training. 
He  would  have  education  begin  with  earliest  childhood, 
particularly  by  attending  to  the  surroundings,  and 
guarding  the  susceptible  infant  against  improper  influ- 
ences; but,  in  subsequent  training,  he  places  undue 
weight  upon  the  cultivation  of  memory,  and  leans 
strongly  to  the  cramming  method  of  teaching. 

Among  the  Roman  writers  on  educational  subjects, 
in  the  Christian  era,  Seneca  and  Quintilian  occupy  the 
highest  rank,  although  their  pedagogic  wisdom,  too, 
lies  scattered  in  a  mass  of  ideas  on  other  subjects,  and 
never  rises  to  the  dignity  of  an  educational  system. 
Seneca  was  born  two  years  B.  C,  at  Cordova,  in  Spain, 
and  educated  in  Rome.  In  the  course  of  time  he  be- 
came the  teacher  of  young  Nero,  and  withdrew  after- 
ward into  private  life,  devoting  himself  to  literary 
occupations.  A.  D.  65,  he  was  accused  of  participation 
in  a  conspiracy  and  condemned  to  death. 

Surrounded  by  the  excesses  of  a  corrupt  society,  he 
held  that  man  was  naturally  inclined  to  evil,  but  that 


ROME. 


49 


wise  laws  and,  particularly,  a  rational  education,  coup- 
ling strictness  with  mildness,  could  counteract  the 
sinful  tendencies  and  lead  to  virtue.  He  admonishes 
impressively  against  anger  in  punishment,  and  sums 
up  his  directions  in  this  respect  in  the  sentence: 
"  Who  condemns  quickly,  condemns  passionately ;  who 
punishes  too  much,  punishes  unjustly."  He  recognizes 
the  manifold  differences  in  the  individual  character,  in 
the  dispositions  and  peculiarities  of  children,  and  in- 
sists upon  the  necessity  of  modifying  the  treatment  of 
children  in  accordance  with  these  differences.  Dis- 
gusted with  the  sterile  cramming  of  the  memory  that 
characterized  his  time,  he  contended  for  reduction  and 
limitation  of  studies  to  that  which  was  needed  in  life, 
and  gave  rise  to  the  rule  that  *'  we  must  teach  not  for 
the  school,  but  for  life." 

In  moral  education,  he  places  great  weight  upon  ex- 
ample and  illustration  as  the  mightiest  factors;  these 
may  precede  or  follow  precept,  according  to  circum- 
stances, but  they  are  essential.  "  Long  and  tedious,"  he 
says,  "is  the  road  of  precept,  but  short  and  efficacious 
that  of  example."  He  differs  widely  from  Cicero  in 
the  place  which  he  assigns  to  the  study  of  nature.  He 
holds  that  only  insight  into  the  laws  of  nature  enables 
us  to  approach  the  Deity,  as  it  were,  and  to  regulate 
our  lives  in  accordance  with  his  will;  for  wisdom,  he 
says,  consists  in  strict  adherence  to  the  known  laws  of 
nature,  in  following  her  example  freely  and  from  con- 
viction. Physical  exercise  he  deems  useful,  if  carried 
on  with  moderation;  but  injurious,  exhausting  body 
and  mind,  if  indulged  in  to  excess.  He,  too,  acknowl- 
edges the  importance  of  early  training,  and  extols  the 

H.  P.-5. 


50  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

calling  of  the  teacher  who  leads  youth  in  the  path  of 
truth. 

Quintilian  was  born  A.  D.  42,  in  Spain.  He,  too,  re- 
ceived his  education  in  Rome,  where  he  became  one  of 
the  most  iminent  orators.  He  became  a  public  teacher 
of  eloquence,  and  was  so  successful  that  he  obtained  from 
the  emperor  Vespasian  the  consular  dignity  and  a  con- 
siderable salary.  He  was  the  first  teacher  salaried  by 
the  state,  and  was  distinguished  b}^  the  title.  Professor 
of  Eloquence.  After  the  death  of  his  wife  and  of  one  of 
his  two  sons,  he  retired  into  private  life,  in  order  to 
devote  himself  to  the  education  of  his  remaining  son, 
and  wrote  in  his  retirement  his  leading  work,  the 
Institutions  of  Oratory^  which  also  contains  his  principles 
of  general  education. 

Quintilian  has  a  very  favorable  opinion  of  the  powers 
of  children.  He  thinks  that  weak-minded  children  and 
children  that  can  not  learn  are  very  rare ;  that,  on  the 
contrary,  man  has  natural  talents,  a  natural  disposition 
to  learn  as  the  bird  has  to  fl}/;  and  that  a  good  educa- 
tion always  yields  good  fruit.  He  holds  that  intellectual 
culture  should  begin  long  before  the  seventh  year;  not 
that  the  children  should  be  forced  to  systematic,  per- 
sistent work,  but  that  their  plays  should  be  managed 
so  as  to  develop  their  intellects.  Hence,  in  the  choice 
of  the  nurses,  great  care  should  be  taken  to  choose 
well-educated  women,  Avith  correct  pronunciation  and 
of  excellent  moral  character.  Similar  care  should  be 
bestowed  on  the  choice  of  associates  and,  again,  of  the 
first  teachers  or  pedagogues.  Of  these  he  does  not  ask 
that  they  should  be  learned;  but  he  insists  that  they 
should  be   able   to  direct  the  first   instruction  in  Ian- 


ROME.  51 

guage;  and,  above  all  things,  if  they  are  not  learned, 
that  they  should  be  aware  of  it.  He  is  quite  positive 
that  it  is  a  grave  error  to  think  that  an  inferior  teacher 
is  good  enough  for  the  beginning,  because  the  children 
will  subsequently  have  the  double  task  of  unlearning 
what  the  inferior  teacher  taught  them,  and  of  acquiring 
new  things.  But  even  the  most  skillful  teacher,  he 
thinks,  is  a  curse,  if  he  is  not  a  noble,  pure  man. 

He  considers  it  the  first  and  foremost  duty  of  the 
teacher  to  render  himself  familiar  with  the  individual 
peculiarities  of  the  pupil.  He  condemns  the  practice 
of  asking  more  from  a  pupil  than  he  can  do  under- 
standingly.  In  discipline  he  favors  mildness,  and  is 
altogether  opposed  to  corporal  punishment,  upon  which 
he  looks  as  a  sign  of  negligence  and  indolence  in  the 
teacher.  In  addition,  the  teacher  should  be  on  a  friendly 
footing  with  the  parents  of  the  pupil;  should  consider 
himself,  for  the  time,  the  substitute  of  the  father; 
should  be  free  from  faults,  control  his  anger,  be  mod- 
erate in  praise  and  blame,  always  just,  and  an  example 
of  all  that  is  good.  He  warmly  prefers  school  instruc- 
tion to  instruction  in  the  family,  because  the  latter  does 
not  fit  for  the  vicissitudes  of  life  in  society;  because  it 
produces  self-conceit  and  fails  to  produce  self-control. 

Thus,  while  we  fail  to  discover  in  the  Roman  writers 
a  harmonious  system  of  education,  similar  to  those  of 
tlieir  Greek  teachers;  while  we  fail  to  find  in  them  the 
lofty  ideals  of  a  Socrates  and  of  an  Aristotle,  they  fur- 
nish us  a  rich  mine  of  practical  suggestions,  so  strictly 
in  accordance  Avith  common  sense  and  with  correct  prin- 
ciples of  humanity,  that  to  follow  them  is  to  be  in  the 
path  of  truth. 


LECTURE  V. 

CHRISTIANITY  —  THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY  —  BACON  — 

COMENIUS. 

During  the  reign  of  Emperor  Augustus,  about  four 
years  before  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  there 
was  born  in  Galilee  a  man  who  by  many  of  his  follow- 
ers is  not  inappropriately  named  TJie  Man.  While 
Roman  civilization,  which  at  that  time  overshadowed 
the  world,  was  hastening  to  its  death,  he  founded  a  new 
religion,  and  with  it  a  new  civilization,  based  on  pure 
humanity;  a  religion  and  a  civilization  which  will  ever 
rise  superior  to  the  persecutions  of  its  enemies,  and  to 
the  abuses  and  perversions  of  its  pretended  friends ;  a 
religion  and  a  civilization  which,  deeply  and  firmly 
rooted  in  truth,  must  henceforth  live  and  grow,  even 
if  it  should  lose  its  name. 

Christianity,  opposed  to  all  external  distinctions 
among  men  —  not  excluding  the  distinction  of  sex  — 
recognized  in  man  only  the  human  being,  a  being  en- 
dowed with  unlimited  perfectibility ;  and  would  lead 
its  followers  to  the  love  of  God  and  of  fellow-beings,  to 
individual  and  social  virtue.  "Be  perfect,  even  as  your 
(52) 


CHRISTIANITY.  53 

\ 
Father  in  heaven  is  perfect,"  is  the  watchword  of  this 

new  civilization :  i.  e.j  be  all  that  your  powers  enable 
you  to  be;  live,  grow,  do;  avoid  stagnation  as  you  Avould 
death ;  seek  progress  as  you  would  life.  In  the  propor- 
tion in  which  the  human  being  perfects  himself,  makes 
all  the  use  he  can  of  his  talents — no  matter  how  limited 
they  are  —  Christianity  approves  or  disapproves,  rewards 
or  punishes;  the  greatest  is  not  he  who  has  most,  but 
he  who  does  most. 

Thus,  Christianity  addressed  itself  to  all  who  suffered 
from  oppression,  whatever  its  nature;  it  offered  to  all 
that  were  "  heavy-laden  "  a  haven  of  "  rest,"  where  there 
is  no  superiority  of  nation,  of  caste,  of  rank,  of  birth,  of 
wealth,  of  knowledge,  or  of  sex;  where  even  the  helpless 
infant  is  safe  from  cruelty  and  violence.  On  this  ac- 
count it  spread  with  amazing  rapidity  as  soon  as  the 
oppressed  masses  had  realized  the  nature  of  the  call, 
braving  persecution  and  death,  compelling,  at  last,  even 
its  enemies  to  acknowledge  the  truth  and  force  of  its 
teachings,  and  creating  mighty  revolutions  in  all  rela- 
tions of  life. 

But  this  rapid  diffusion  was  not  without  its  evil 
results :  few  apprehended  the  new  religion  in  its  full- 
ness and  beauty;  many  adopted  it  from  policy,  and 
perverted  its  teachings  to  personal  advantages ;  many 
were  drowned  in  its  vast  ideality,  and  sought  virtue  in 
entire  abnegation,  in  absolute  contempt  of  real  life ; 
ignorance,  selfishness,  and  fanaticism  robbed  it  more 
and  more  of  its  purely  humane  character;  and  Christian 
education,  whose  aim  had  been  the  humanizing  of  man- 
kind, retrograded  into  a  specific  education,  whose  highest 
aim  was  the  production  of  believers  in  Christianity,  or^ 


54  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

rather,  of  believers  in  a  variety  of  dogmas  that  grew 
upon  the  new  religion  as  the  mistletoe  grows  upon  the 
oak. 

To  review  the  multitude  of  phases  through  which  the 
specific  Christian  education  passed,  variously  influenced 
by  monasticism,  scholasticism,  and  a  number  of  other 
factors,  would  lead  me  too  far  astray  from  the  ultimate 
object  of  my  lectures.  The  study  of  the  period  during 
which  the  seeds  of  truth  in  the  religion  of  humanity 
lived  and  even  grew,  in  spite  of  all  kinds  of  hostile 
agencies,  is  indeed  very  gratifying  to  the  philanthropist 
and  to  the  Christian ;  but  it  is  our  business  to  hasten 
to  the  time  when  philosophy  and  science  succeeded  in 
coming  to  the  rescue,  and  to  sketch  the  lives  and  works 
of  a  few  eminent  men  whose  labors  culminated  in  the 
new  developing  education;  and  this  brings  us  to  the 
close  of  the  sixteenth  century  and,  first,  to  Lord  Bacon. 

Lord  Bacon  was  born  in  the  year  1561,  in  London, 
and  died  in  1626.  His  eloquence  and  learning  had 
enabled  him  to  climb  to  the  highest  positions  of  public 
trust;  yet  his  official  career  has  little  to  please,  much 
to  mortify,  since  it  appears  that  his  moral  character 
was  quite  reprehensible.  On  the  other  hand,  he  has 
conferred  incalculable  blessings  on  mankind  by  freeing 
it,  from  the  fetters  of  scholastic  word-wisdom,  from  the 
slavery  of  tradition  and  authority ;  by  recalling  it  from 
the  sterile  plains  of  an  excessive  idealism  on  which  it 
had  starved,  and  leading  it  back  to  the  rich  fields  of 
nature;  by  showing  mankind  the  road  to  the  philosophy 
and  science  of  humanity,  the  great  safeguards  of  the 
religion  of  humanity. 

Lord  Bacon  was  no  teacher,  nor  did  he  directly  exert 


BACON.  55 

any  influence  upon  education ;  but  he  gave  to  mankind 
new  ways  and  new  aims  of  thought,  which,  in  the 
course  of  time,  modified  the  whole  intellectual  and 
ethical  life  of  the  race.  He  rejected  the  scholastic, 
abstract  method  of  antiquity,  and  insisted  upon  inde- 
pendent investigation  of  concrete  reality;  he  wanted 
science  to  become  intuitional,  living,  and  practical;  it 
must  investigate  the  world,  in  order  to  control  it  and 
make  it  subservient  to  our  wants  and  happiness. 

He  holds  that  scientific  life  does  not  consist  in  the 
learning  of  traditional  lore,  but  in  independent  investi- 
gation, in  discovery  and  invention.  Hence  he  finds 
the  only  correct  method  of  study  in  experience,  in  ob- 
servation and  experiment,  with  the  accompanying  com- 
parisons, applications,  and  generalizations.  The  student 
must  rise  from  carefully  observed  and  digested  facts  to 
accurate  conceptions,  from  the  phenomenon  to  the  law 
of  being  and  to  the  rule  of  action.  Hence  Lord  Bacon's 
method  has  been  called  the  method  of  induction  —  not 
the  induction  of  mere  analysis,  taught  by  Aristotle,  but 
the  induction  of  synthesis,  of  discovery  and  invention. 
In  order  to  do  full  justice  to  this  method  of  thought,  it 
is  necessary  to  give  up  all  prejudices,  or  "  idols,"  as 
Lord  Bacon  calls  them,  whether  they  arise  from  insufii- 
cient  powers  of  insight,  from  haste,  from  personal  tem- 
perament, from  education  and  caste,  from  manners, 
customs,  and  laws  of  the  community,  or  from  a  belief 
in  the  authority  of  tradition ;  perception  and  reason 
must  be  perfectly  free  and  untrammeled. 

I  hope  to  show  in  the  sequel  the  vast  influence  of 
this  new  philosophy  upon  education,  more  particularly 
upon   intellectual  culture ;   an  influence  which,  in  the 


5Q 


IlISTOKY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 


words  of  Von  Raumer,  at  the  distance  of  more  than  two 
centuries,  is  still  in  the  ascendant.  But  there  are  in 
his  works  man\'  passages  that  have  a  direct  bearing  on 
education,  of  which  I  offer  a  few  by  way  of  illustrating 
his  views  on  the  subject.  He  gives  preference  to  the 
genetic  method  of  teaching,  where  the  teacher  "trans- 
plants knowledge  into  the  scholar's  mind  as  it  grew  in 
his  own;"  for  "whatever  is  imparted  in  this  way  will 
take  root,  flourish,  and  bear  fruit."  However,  he  be- 
lieves that  "methods  should  vary  according  to  the 
subject  taught,  for  in  knowledge  itself  there  is  great 
diversity." 

In  another  place  he  pleads  for  the  importance  of  edu- 
cation. "  A  gardener,"  he  says,  "  takes  more  pains  with 
the  young  than  with  the  full-grown  plant;  and  men 
commonly  find  it  needful,  in  any  undertaking,  to  begin 
well.  We  give  scarce  a  thought  to  our  teachers,  and 
care  little  for  what  they  may  be,  and  yet  we  are  forever 
complaining  because  rulers  are  rigid  in  the  matter  of 
laws  and  penalties,  but  indifferent  to  the  right  training 
of  the  young." 

The  beneficial  influence  of  Lord  Bacon's  philosophy 
upon  pedagogy  is  illustrated  most  conspicuously , and 
most  beautifully  in  the  last  bishop  of  the  Bohemian 
Brothers,  John  Amos  Comenius.  He  was  born  in  the 
year  1592,  at  Comnia,  in  Moravia.  His  early  history  is 
obscure ;  it  is  known,  however,  that  he  attended  the 
university  of  Herborn,  at  Nassau,  where  he  studied 
theology.  In  1614,  he  returned  to  his  native  land  and 
became  rector  of  a  school,  and,  in  1618,  pastor  of  a  parish 
of  Bohemian  Brothers.  In  1624,  Ferdinand  II.  banished 
all  evangelical  preachers  from  his  realms,  and  Comenius 


COMENIU 

took  refuge  at  Lissa,  in  Poland, 
1628,  member  of  the  faculty  of  the  academy.  Here  he 
completed  his  first  didactic  works  of  importance,  among 
which  the  ^^ Key  to  the  Study  of  Languages"  founded 
his  reputation.  It  appeared  in  1631,  and  was  received 
with  such  immense  applause  that  in  a  short  time  it  was 
translated  into  twelve  European  and  several  Asiatic 
languages.  In  1641,  he  accepted  a  call  of  the  English 
Parliament  to  visit  England,  and  to  reform  the  English 
schools  according  to  his  principles;  but  civil  war  neu- 
tralized his  efforts,  and  he  yielded  to  a  similar  call  from 
Sweden,  in  1642,  where  he  was  more  successful.  Soon 
afterward  he  returned  to  Lissa,  where  he  was  made  a 
bishop  of  his  church  in  1648.  In  165Q,  he  accepted  the 
call  of  a  Hungarian  prince,  to  assist  in  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  schools,  but  returned  to  Lissa  four  years  later. 
In  1652,  the  Poles  burned  Lissa  and  scattered  the  Bohe- 
mian Brothers  forever.  His  subsequent  wanderings 
brought  him  to  Amsterdam,  where  he  was  cordially 
received.  He  died  at  Naarden,  a  neighboring  town,  in 
1671.  During  his  stay  in  Hungary  he  had  composed  a 
remarkable  school-book,  entitled  the  "  Orbis  Pictus,"  which 
I  shall  have  occasion  to  mention  again  liereafter. 

Comenius  was  by  no  means  one  of  those  pedagogues 
who  take  up  one  or  another  single  subject  of  instruction, 
or  who  place  all  good  in  a  certain  method  of  teaching. 
He  was,  in  the  very  best  sense  of  the  word,  universal; 
and  notwithstanding  this  universality,  he  alwaj^s  strove 
after  the  most  thorough  foundation.  The  aim  of  educa- 
tion he  finds  in  wisdom,  in  knowledge,  virtue,  and  piety. 
He  contended  that  all  men  need  instruction ;  that  all 
children,  rich  and  poor,  high  and  low,  boys  and  girls, 


58  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

should  be  taught  in  school.  "  Not,"  he  adds,  "  that  each 
should  learn  every  science;  but  all  should  be  so  in- 
structed that  they  may  understand  the  basis,  relation, 
and  purpose  of  all  the  most  important  things,  having 
reference  to  what  they  are  and  are  to  become."  He 
complained  that  the  educational  systems  of  his  time 
did  not  accomplish  this.  In  many  places  there  were 
no  schools  at  all,  and  in  others  only  the  children  of  the 
w^ealthy  were  cared  for.  At  the  same  time,  he  condemns 
the  methods  of  instruction  as  repulsive,  tedious,  and 
misty;  and  deplores  the  neglect  of  moral  training,  the 
absence  of  sciences  in  the  curriculum,  and  the  undue 
preponderance  of  Latin. 

He  proposed  a  system  of  educational  institutions, 
consisting  of  four  divisions:  the  maternal  school,  the 
vernacular  school,  the  Latin  school,  and  the  academy. 

The  maternal  school  comprises  domestic  education 
under  the  mother's  direction,  and  lasts  during  the  first 
six  years  of  the  child's  life.  Its  main  care  is  the  sound 
mind  in  the  sound  body.  The  mother  must  attend  with 
intelligent  solicitude  to  the  physical  welfare  of  her  child; 
she  must  nurse  it  herself;  guard  it  from  all  stimulants 
and  quackery;  ofler  it  opportunities  for  cheerful  play, 
for  manifold  observations,  accompanied  with  simple  in- 
structions ;  and  implant  the  seeds  of  virtue  and  piety. 

He  shows  ingeniously  how,  already  during  the  first 
six  years  of  life,  the  child  can  and  should  obtain  in  the 
parental  home  the  elements  of  all  later  knowledge. 
He  shows  how  from  the  cradle  it  gradually  extends  the 
scope  of  its  perceptions  to  the  sitting-room,  the  other 
rooms  of  the  house,  the  j^ard,  the  streets,  the  gardens 
and   fields,  to   sun,  moon,  and    stars;    how   it   becomes 


C0MENIU8.  59 

familiar  with  its  limbs  and  their  uses,  with  animals, 
plants,  stones,  and  their  names;  how  it  learns  to  dis- 
tinguish light  from  darkness,  day  from  night,  colors, 
shapes,  numbers,  and  sounds;  how  it  gains  ideas  of 
longer  and  shorter  periods  of  time,  of  the  development 
of  organic  life,  of  human  institutions ;  how  it  becomes 
skilled  in  song,  language,  and  gestures.  In  short,  Co- 
menius  sketches  an  elementary  course  of  object  lessons, 
of  exercises  in  intuition,  in  thinking  and  speaking,  and 
shows  that  it  contains  the  principles  of  all  subsequent 
instruction  in  geography,  natural  science,  geometry, 
arithmetic,  music,  language,  etc.  At  the  same  time, 
parents  should,  particularly  by  example,  develop  correct 
moral  feelings,  and  lead  their  children  to  moderation, 
cleanliness,  obedience,  and  modesty. 

When  the  child  is  ready  for  the  vernacular  school, 
the  latter  should  present  itself  in  a  friendly,  not  in  a 
repulsive  light.  The  vernacular  school,  similar  to  our 
district  school,  furnishes  instruction  to  the  child  from 
the  sixth  to  the  twelfth  year.  Comenius  asks  that  it 
should  teach  only  the  vernacular  language  (hence  its 
name),  and  that  it  should  lay  great  stress  upon  prac- 
tical education.  Reading,  writing,  orthograph}^,  arith- 
metic, measuring,  song,  religion,  the  elements  of  history, 
natural  science,  geography  and  astronomy,  popular  in- 
struction about  trades  and  arts,  should  constitute  the 
curriculum  of  exercise  and  study.  Thus,  he  would  make 
the  vernacular  school  an  institution  that  prepares  for 
life  as  well  as  for  the  higher  institutions  of  learning. 

With  reference  to  the  latter,  I  would  merely  state  that 
Comenius  lays  down  for  them,  among  others,  these  prin- 
ciples:   without   knowledge,   rational  thought,   speech, 


60  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

and  action  are  impossible,  hence  the  sciences  must  be 
nurtured;  avoid  words  without  ideas;  let  the  concrete 
always  precede  the  abstract.  To  deal  more  largely  with 
these  higher  institutions  does  not  lie  within  our  limits, 
and  I  return  to  his  views  on  elementary  instruction. 

School,  he  says,  is  a  workshop  of  humanity;   it  is  to 
bring  man  to  the  ready  and  proper  use  of  his  reason, 
his  language,   and   his  artistic  skill  —  to  wisdom,  elo- 
quence, and  prudence.     Hence,  its  material  of  instruc- 
tion must  be  valuable  and  comprehensible  for  all  the 
children  of  the  people,  and  must  tend  to  their  universal 
cultivation.     Whatever  bears  no  fruit  in   life   nor  en- 
hances humanity,  whatever  tends  to  empty  words  and 
shallow  mechanical  drilling,  is  not  for  the  school.     The 
material  of  instruction  must  be  selected  with  care,  and 
treated  in  accordance  w^th  natural  methods  that  agree 
with  the  normal  development  of  children  and  take  into 
consideration    their    manifold    individual    peculiarities. 
First,  the  senses  are  to  be  set  to  work ;  then,  memory ; 
and,  at  last,  understanding  and  judgment.     The  pupil 
must  not  learn  b}-  heart  what  has  not  become  his  from 
perception  or  reflection ;  he  must  not  speak  about  what 
he  does  not  understand.     The  thing  must  precede  the 
word;   the  example  must  come  before  the  rule,     In  all 
branches,   the   easy  and   the  simple   thing  must  come 
before  the   difficult  and  the  complex.     Nor  should  the 
child  receive  much  or  many  things  at  once,  but  progress 
gradually  and  continuously. 

Thus,  the  clear  mind  of  Comenius  was  already  fully 
aware  of  the  methodical  laws  which  require  that  all 
instruction  should  be  based  on  intuition,  should  be 
gradual,  thorough,  and  continuous;   but  it  was  no  less 


COMENIUS.  61 

evident  to  him  that  all  instruction  must  arouse  and 
enhance  the  self-activity  of  the  learner.  The  child,  he 
claims,  must  use  its  senses  as  perceptive  powers;  must 
observe  surrounding  objects;  compare  its  perceptions; 
form  concepts,  judgments,  conclusions  from  its  ideas; 
learn  to  express  its  thoughts  clearly  and  fluently ;  and 
fix  its  knowledge,  as  well  as  improve  its  skill,  by  varied 
practice.  In  short,  all  the  powers  of  the  pupil  must  be 
kept  in  activity.  Knowledge  must  not  be  given  to  the 
pupil  as  something  finished,  as  something  ready-made 
or  cut-and-dried,  but  it  must  be  found  from  its  elements; 
or,  as  Comenius  expresses  himself,  "the  teacher  must 
not  sow  plants  instead  of  seeds." 

Wheresoever  circumstances  permit  it,  Comenius  would 
lead  the  pupils  to  obtain  their  fundamental  ideas,  at 
least,  from  the  direct  observation  of  objects,  or,  in  the 
absence  of  these,  from  the  pictures  of  objects.  In  order 
to  supply  such  pictures,  and  in  order  to  fix  and  arrange 
the  ideas  gained  by  the  child,  he  composed  a  book, 
"The  Orbls  Pictus,  the  Visible  World;  that  is,  the 
Pictures  and  Names  of  all  the  Principal  Things  in  the 
World,  and  of  all  the  Principal  Occupations  of  Man." 
In  spite  of  its  many  faults  in  technical  execution  and 
arrangement,  this  remarkable  book  exerted  a  wonderful 
influence  upon  the  schools,  and  did  much  to  difllise 
more  rational  views  upon  education. 

While  Comenius  thus  gave  clear  directions  concerning 
methods  of  instruction,  he  never  lost  sight  of  the  dis- 
ciplinary and  pedagogic  side  of  the  school.  He  insists 
repeatedly  that  the  school  is  not  only  to  impart  knowl- 
edge and  skill,  but  that  it  must,  at  the  same  time, 
difiuse    virtue    and    piety,    and    develop    as    well    as 


62  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

strengthen  perseverance,  punctuality,  orderliness,  just- 
ice, etc.  He  asks  for  airy  and  light  school-rooms,  and 
considers  play-grounds  essential  to  a  well-regulated 
school.  At  the  same  time,  he  deems  frequent  walks 
with  the  classes  absolutely  necessar}^,  to  render  the 
children  familiar  with  nature  and  human  occupations. 
In  short,  Comenius  aims  not  at  intellectual  culture 
alone,  but  at  a  harmonious  development  of  the  entire 
human  being.  He  is  a  pedagogue  in  the  fullest  sense 
of  the  word. 


LECTURE   VL 


LOCKE  —  FRANCKE. 


I  TURN  again  to  England  for  the  representative  of 
the  next  great  forward  step  in  science  and  philosophy, 
and,  consequently,  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  educa- 
tion. This  benefactor  of  the  race  is  John  Locke.  He 
was  born  in  the  year  1632,  received  his  education  at 
Westminster  and  Oxford,  and  died  in  the  year  1704, 
after  a  life  remarkable  for  strange  vicissitudes,  but 
yet  more  for  unsullied  purity  and  intense  piety. 

Bacon  had  led  the  way  to  inductive  investigation 
with  reference  to  external  nature;  Locke  applied  the 
same  principles  to  the  study  of  the  internal  —  of  the 
mental  nature  of  man  —  and  laid  down  the  results  of  his 
labors  in  his  "  Essay  on  Human  Understanding ^  Thus 
he  became  the  founder  of  empirical  psychology,  so  im- 
})ortant  in  modern  pedagogy.  More  particularly^,  he 
established  the  important  doctrine  that  there  are  no 
innate  principles  in  the  mind,  and  that  all  ideas  come 
from  sensation  or  reflection,  from  external  or  internal 
experience  or  observation. 

His  ideas  on  the  subject  of  education  are  laid  down 
in   a  book,  entitled  "  Thoughts  on  Education, ^^  of  whose 

(63) 


64  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

contents  I  give  a  short  abstract.  He  defines  his  ideal 
of  education,  at  the  outset,  in  the  following  words:  "A 
sound  mind  in  a  sound  body,  is  a  short  but  full  de- 
scription of  a  happy  state  in  this  world.  He  that  has 
these  two,  has  little  more  to  wish  for;  and  he  that 
wants  either  of  them,  will  be  little  the  better  for 
any  thing  else."  He  then  gives,  in  the  first  place,  a 
comprehensive  treatise  on  the  hygienic  treatment  of 
children.  He  asks  that  the  food  be  plain  and  simple, 
and  free  from  excessive  or  high  seasoning;  that  the 
clothing  should  be  light  and  comfortable.  In  this  con- 
nection, I  can  not  refrain  from  giving  you  in  full  his 
concluding  remark  on  lacing.  He  says :  '•  And  yet  I 
have  seen  so  many  instances  of  children  receiving  great 
harm  from  strait  lacing,  that  I  can  not  but  conclude 
there  are  other  creatures  as  well  as  monkeys,  who, 
little  wiser  than  the}^,  destroy  their  young  ones  by 
senseless  fondness  and  too  much  embracing."  Again, 
he  insists  upon  frequent  and  prolonged  stay  in  the 
open  air,  upon  diligent  bathing  and  swimming,  upon 
thorough  hardening  of  the  body,  upon  regular  sleep  on 
a  cool  and  hard  bed,  and  upon  a  limited  use  of  physic. 
"  It  is  safer,"  he  says,  "  to  leave  the  children  wholly  to 
nature  than  to  put  them  in  the  hands  of  one  forward  to 
tamper,  or  that  thinks  children  are  to  be  cured,  in 
ordinary  distempers,  by  any  thing  but  diet,  or  by  a 
method  very  little  distant  from  it." 

It  is  by  no  means  the  smallest  merit  of  Locke  to  have 
presented  the  hygienic  treatment  of  children  in  a  more 
thorough,  more  sj'^stematic,  and  more  scientific  manner 
than  any  of  his  predecessors  had  done.  He  inaugurated 
thereby  a  reform  which  did  good  work,  as  we  shall  see 


LOCKE.  65 

directly,  in  the  schools  of  the  pietists  and,  more  yet,  in 
those  of  the  philanthropinists  of  Germany,  and  which 
is  bearing  delightful  fruit  even  to-day. 

Locke's  ideas  on  discipline  are  almost  equally  excel- 
lent. "As  the  strength  of  the  body,"  he  says,  "lies 
chiefly  in  being  able  to  endure  hardships,  so  also  does 
that  of  the  mind.  And  the  great  principle  and  founda- 
tion of  all  virtue  and  worth  is  placed  in  this,  that  a 
man  is  able  to  deny  himself  his  own  desires,  cross  his 
own  inclinations,  and  purely  follow  what  reason  directs 
as  best,  tliough  the  appetite  lean  the  other  way."  He 
holds  that  this  training  in  self-denial  and  self-control 
can  not  begin  too  early,  and  that  a  sturdy  fight  must 
be  made  from  earliest  childhood  with  all  kinds  of  ill 
habits  and  ill  humors,  however  slight  they  may  seem. 
He  places  great  stress  upon  the  development  of  truth- 
fulness and  of  a  proper  sense  of  honor;  although  it 
would  seem  to  me  that  he  errs  in  making  ambition 
and  the  love  of  applause  one  of  the  most  important 
incentives  of  the  mind. 

He  looks  upon  the  rod  —  which  he  calls  the  instru- 
ment of  the  "usual  lazy  and  short-way  chastisement"  — 
as  the  most  unfit  means  of  any  to  be  used  in  educa- 
tion; because  it  accustoms  the  child  to  act  less  from 
reason  than  from  fear  of  pain,  and  because  it  abases 
and  breaks  the  spirit.  Only  in  extreme  cases  of  malice, 
stubbornness,  and  lying,  he  is  willing  to  admit  the  rod 
as  a  corrective ;  though  it  seems  difficult  to  see  how  an 
instrument  so  pernicious  can  work  any  good,  even  in 
these  cases,  unless  we  are  willing  to  grant  that  malice, 
stubbornness,  and  lying   can  be  cured  by  that  which 

prodnoes  those  disorders, 
n.  p.   (1. 


66  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

Unlike  Quintilian  of  old,  he  is  in  favor  of  private, 
domestic  education  in  preference  to  the  public  school; 
a  view  for  which  he  deserves  credit,  when  we  consider 
the  miserable  condition  of  the  public  schools  of  his 
time  in  methods  of  instruction  and  discipline,  as  well 
as  in  materials  of  instruction;  and  if  we  oppose  to 
them,  as  Locke  does,  an  excellent  mother  and  an  ex- 
cellent governor.  In  all  cases,  however,  he  is  opposed 
to  a  multiplicity  of  rules.  "Make  but  few  laws,"  he 
says;  "but  see  that  they  be  well  observed  when  once 
made." 

Speaking  of  learning,  he  begins:  "You  will  wonder, 
perhaps,  that  I  put  learning  last,  especially  if  I  tell 
you  that  I  think  it  the  least  part."  He  deems  learn- 
ing indeed  necessary,  but  not  the  chief  business  of 
education;  inferior  to  health,  virtue,  and  wisdom.  He 
deems  learning  a  great  help  to  virtue  and  wisdom  in 
well-disposed  minds ;  but  in  others  not  so  disposed,  he 
contends  that  "it  helps  them  only  to  be  the  more 
foolish  and  worse  men."  He  would  have  children  learn 
without  compulsion,  of  their  own  free  will  and  accord; 
and  he  considers  it  the  main  business  of  the  educator 
to  render  learning  easy  and  pleasant. 

He  advises  to  teach  children  reading  as  soon  as  they 
can  speak,  but  without  compulsion ;  in  play,  as  it  were, 
by  means  of  alphabet  blocks,  for  instance.  As  reading 
books,  he  commends  ^^op's  Fables,  with  as  many  pic- 
tures as  possible,  also  Reynard,  the  Fox.  Writing  is 
commenced  as  soon  as  the  children  can  read,  by  methods 
that  deserve  little  notice.  Afterward,  drawing  is  taken 
up,  and  great  attention  is  paid  to  it  on  account  of  its 
practical  value.     Language   he   would  have  taught  on 


LOCKE.  67 

the  plan  of  Comenius,  i.  e.,  based  on  practice,  and  in 
connection  with  scientific  instruction.  Arithmetic, 
book-keeping,  and  practical  scientific  branches  are 
considered  of  special  importance;  on  the  other  hand, 
poetr}',  music,  and  the  arts  in  general,  find  little  favor 
in  his  eyes.  Only  dancing  is  admitted,  because  it  gives 
graceful  manners ;  and,  for  "  gentlemen,"  fencing  and 
riding  are  added. 

Indeed,  Locke's  "  Thoughts  on  Education^''  have  through- 
out special  reference  to  the  training  of  young  noblemen, 
since  his  position,  as  tutor  in  a  noble  family,  gave  rise 
to  the  treatise.  While  the}^,  therefore,  contain  many 
valuable  thou,^hts,  they  do  not  contain  any  thing  about 
the  arrangement  of  public  institutions,  education  of 
girls,  etc.,  and  have  no  claim  as  a  system  of  universal 
education.  - 

To  this,  without  doubt,  it  is  due  that  the  direct  and 
immediate  influence  of  Locke's  views  upon  education 
was  not  remarkable.  Formalism  and  scholasticism 
continued  to  rule  the  schools  where  they  existed.  It 
was  reserved  for  the  pietists,  the  followers  of  a  re- 
formatory religious  direction  in  Germany,  to  give 
practical  life  to  his  views,  inasmuch  as  he  asked  for 
greater  attention  to  physical  education;  inasmuch  as 
he  deemed  moral  and  intellectual  development  supe- 
rior to  mere  learning;  and  inasmuch  as  he  called  for 
branches  of  instruction  that  have  a  bearing  upon  real 
life.  To  this  the  pietists  added  an  intensely  Christian 
tendency  and,  above  all  things,  an  earnest  efibrt  to 
confer  the  blessings  of  education  equally  upon  all, 
the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  high  and  the  low,  the  boys 
and  the  girls. 


^  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

Similar  to  the  Puritans  of  England  at  an  earlier, 
and  to  the  Methodists  at  a  later  date,  the  pietists 
made  war  upon  the  dogmatism  of  an  established  church 
and  upon  the  aristocratic  isolation  of  the  schools,  and 
struggled  for  active  and  general  diffusion  of  practical 
Christianity  and  for  the  popularizing  of  education. 
The  founder  of  pietism  was  Phil.  Jacob  Spener,  who 
occupied  high  clerical  positions  at  Dresden  and  Berlin 
from  1686  to  1705. 

The  pedagogic  representative  of  pietism  is  Augustus 
Hermann  Francke,  a  man  whose  labors  in  the  cause  of 
education  are  so  intimateh^  interwoven  with  his  life, 
that  to  sketch  the  one  is  to  sketch  the  other.  Francke 
was  born  at  Lubeck,  in  1663;  in  1666,  his  father  re- 
moved to  Gotha,  but  died  four  years  later.  Tlie  orphan 
boy  attended  the  gymnasium  of  Gotha  with  such  re- 
markable success  that  he  was  declared  ready  to  graduate 
in  his  fourteenth  year.  However,  he  did  not  go  to  the 
university  until  two  years  later.  He  studied  theology 
diligently  and  successively  at  Erfurt,  Kiel,  Hamburg, 
and  Leipzig,  where  he  took  his  degree. 

The  important  event  that  finally  determined  the  ten- 
dency of  his  life  overtook  him  at  Hamburg,  where  he 
established  an  infant  school  in  1687.  "  Upon  the  estab- 
lishment of  this  school,"  he  says,  "  I  learned  how  de- 
structive the  usual  school  management  is,  and  how 
exceedingly  difficult  the  discipline  of  children;  and  this 
reflection  made  me  desire  that  God  would  make  me 
worthy  to  do  something  for  the  improvement  of  schools 
and  instruction."  He  published  the  results  of  his  ex- 
perience in  a  work,  entitled  "  The  Education  of  Children 
to  Piety  and  Christian  Wisdom^ 


FRANCKE.  69 

In  1691,  the  university  of  Halle  was  founded,  and, 
through  Spener's  influence,  Francke  was  appointed 
professor  of  Greek  and  Oriental  languages  in  the  new 
university,  and,  at  the  same  time,  pastor  of  the  suhurb 
Glaucha. 

The  opening  of  the  year  1694  is  to  be  considered  as 
tlie  beginning  of  all  the  great  institutions  of  Francke. 
They  commenced  as  follows :  the  poor  were  accustomed 
to  come  to  the  parsonage  every  Thursday  for  alms. 
Instead  of  giving  them  bread  before  the  door,  Francke 
called  them  into  the  house,  catechized  the  younger  in 
the  hearing  of  the  elder,  and  closed  with  a  prayer.  In 
his  own  poverty,  he  began  to  lay  by  money  for  the 
poor  by  depriving  himself  for  a  long  time  of  his 
supper.  In  1695,  he  fixed  a  poor-box  in  his  room;  in 
this  he  found,  one  day,  seven  florins,  left  by  a  benevo- 
lent lady.  "  This  is  a  handsome  capital,"  he  said,  on 
taking  it  out;  "I  must  found  a  good  institution  with 
this;  I  shall  found  a  school  for  the  poor."  On  the  same 
day,  he  bought  some  books  and  employed  a  poor  student 
to  teach  the  children  two  hours  daily.  Soon  the  chil- 
dren of  some  citizens  began  to  attend,  and  paid  a  small 
tuition  fee,  so  that  the  teacher  was  better  paid  and  was 
enabled  to  teach  five  hours  daily. 

During  the  first  summer  the  attendance  had  reached 
sixty.  At  the  same  time,  the  reputation  of  his  benevo- 
lence and  piety  procured  him  contributions  from  every 
quarter,  so  that  he  was  encouraged  to  rent  a  room  in  a 
neighboring  house,  to  employ  an  additional  teacher, 
and  to  separate  the  poor  school  from  the  citizen  (or 
burgher)  school. 

In  1695,  he  formed  the  plan  of  establishing  an  orphan 


70  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

asylum.  Immediately  he  took  a  number  of  orphans  to 
his  school,  and  boarded  them  at  the  houses  of  benevolent 
citizens ;  but  a  present  of  five  hundred  thalers  from  a 
friend  emibled  him  soon  afterward  to  buy  a  house  and 
to  establish  an  orphan  asylum.  In  the  same  year,  three 
boys,  the  sons  of  noble  families,  were  intrusted  to  him, 
to  be  educated  under  his  care,  giving  rise  to  the  founda- 
tion of  the  present  pedagogium,  which  was  reserved  for 
the  sons  of  the  nobility. 

In  1696,  he  bought  a  second  house  for  his  orphans; 
and,  in  June  of  that  year,  the  number  of  orphans  had 
increased  to  fifty-two,  so  that  he  concluded  to  build  a 
more  extensive  asylum,  the  corner-stone  of  which  was 
laid  two  years  later.  In  the  same  year,  he  established 
a  free  table  for  poor  students.  In  1697,  he  founded,  in 
addition  to  the  vernacular  school,  a  Latin  school,  Avhich 
differed  from  the  gymnasia  of  his  time  in  pa^^ng  more 
attention  to  scientific  branches.  In  1707,  he  established 
a  sort  of  teachers'  seminary,  in  which  he  gave  to  stu- 
dents free  instruction  and  opportunity  for  practice,  as 
well  as  free  board,  for  two  years,  on  condition  that,  after 
the  completion  of  their  course,  they  would  teach  or  be 
otherwise  useful  in  his  institutions  for  three  years. 
And  thus  he  went  on,  founding  institution  upon  insti- 
tution, adding  building  to  building,  until  his  death  in 
the  year  1727. 

This  is  the  report,  made  to  the  king,  of  the  status  of 
his  creations  at  the  time  of  his  death :  1.  The  peda- 
gogium, 82  pupils,  with  70  teachers  and  attendants; 
2.  The  Latin  school,  with  3  inspectors,  32  teachers, 
400  pupils  and  attendants;  3.  The  vernacular  schools, 
with  4  inspectors,  98  male  and  8  female  teachers,  and 


FRANCKE.  71 

1,725  boys  and  girls;  4.  Orphan  asylum,  with  100  boys, 
34  girls,  and  10  attendants;  5.  Free  boarders,  225  stu- 
dents and  360  poor  scholars ;  6.  Household,  apothecary's 
store,  and  book  store,  53  attendants;  7.  Institutions  for 
females  — 15  in  the  college  for  young  ladies,  6  in  the 
widows'  asylum, 

In  1863,  these  institutions,  having  continued  to  flour- 
ish under  state  control  after  the  death  of  Francke, 
represented  in  real-estate  the  value  of  313,266  thalers; 
since  their  foundation,  more  than  10,000  teachers  had 
instructed  in  them,  and  they  had  given  an  education 
to  nearly  250,000  boys  and  girls. 

From  all   this  it  is  evident  that  Francke  was  truly  ^ 
and  seriously  in  earnest  in  his  eftbrts  in  behalf  of  schools  / 
and   education.     In  practical  achievements,   in   organ-/ 
izing  and  administrative  talent,  he  surpasses  all  peda-i 
gogues  and  educationists  that  have  preceded  or  followed 
him.     His  whole  learning,  his  whole  energy,  his  whole 
life,  his  whole  happiness  were  in  the  cause;   and  his 
success,  when  we  take  into  consideration  the  period  he  , 
blessed  with  his  labors,  is  truly  astounding.  / 

He  was  one  of  the  first  who  saw  clearly  how  much 
the  teacher  needed  professional  training,  and  he  was 
singularly  successful  in  securing  it  for  his  teachers. 
He  laid  great  stress  upon  systematic  order  and  method 
in  instruction  and  discipline  —  too  much,  it  is  true,  for 
his  immediate  followers,  who  lacked  his  genius,  and  in 
whose  hands  they  degenerated  into  mechanism  of  the 
worst  sort.  The  study  and  consideration  of  individual 
l^ropensities  and  powers  was  one  of  his  main  concerns, 
and  it  frequently  happened  that  his  pupils  were  in  as 
manv  different  classes  as  thev  followed  studies.     He  is 


72  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

concerned  for  the  physical  well-being  of  his  pupils,  and 
insists  upon  airy  and  high  school-rooms  and  sleeping- 
rooms,  as  well  as  upon  wholesome  diet  and  exercise. 
He  is  in  favor  of  intuitional  teaching,  and  provides  an 
abundance  of  apparatus  and  other  appliances  in  accord- 
ance with  his  views.  In  discipline  he  is  full  of  love 
and  kindness,  yet  inflexibly  strict. 

He  defines  his  aim  of  education  as  "godliness  and 
prudence."  The  first  expression  is  equivalent  with 
piety,  as  it  was  in  the  mind  of  the  founder  of  his  sect  — 
the  sum  and  substance  of  Christian  virtues  —  and  in  his 
mind,  again,  the  sum  and  substance  of  human  virtues. 
With  Locke,  he  regarded  this  of  incalculably  more  im- 
portance than  mere  learning.  "One  grain  of  living 
faith,"  he  exclaims,  in  his  unbounded  enthusiasm, 
"  is  more  to  be  valued  than  a  hundred-weight  of  mere 
historical  knowledge ;  and  one  drop  of  true  love  is  more 
valuable  than  an  ocean  of  learning  in  all  the  mys- 
teries." Unfortunately,  in  this,  too,  his  followers  caught 
only  the  words  and  failed  to  be  inspired  with  the  spirit, 
so  that  they  came  very  near  converting  into  a  curse  to 
humanit}^  the  very  things  with  which  he  meant  to 
bless  and  did  bless  mankind. 

By  the  word  "  prudence  "  he  designated  the  practical 
side  of  education.  This  was  particularly  manifest  in 
the  great  attention  which  he  paid  to  scientific  and 
technical  instruction.  There  were  not  only  extensive 
botanical  gardens,  cabinets  of  natural  history,  dissect- 
ing-rooms, and  laboratories  connected  with  his  insti- 
tutions, but  turning-lathes,  mills  for  grinding  glass, 
painters'  tools,  and  other  opportunities  for  practice  in 
technical  skill. 


FRA.NCKE.  73 

Thus,  he  became  virtually  the  founder  of  the  scientific 
schools  of  Germany  —  the  Real  schulen —  which  have  con- 
tributed so  much  to  the  development  of  technical  talent 
and  scientific  progress  in  Germany,  as  well  as  to  the 
subjugation  of  natural  forces  and  to  the  consequent 
emancipation  of  the  race.  Thus,  he  outlived  even  the| 
perversions  to  which  his  immediate  followers  had  sub- 
jected his  work,  and  fully  realized  his  motto:  ''They 
who  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall  renew  their  strength; 
they  shall  mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles."  / 


H.  P.-7. 


LECTURE  VII. 


ROUSSEAU. 


In  the  last  two  lectures  I  sketched  a  few  types  of  the 
philosophers  and  schoolmen  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  engaged  in  developing  aims  that  cul- 
minated in  the  schools  of  the  humanists  and  realists. 
Both  aimed  at  the  development  of  individuality  and 
of  a  sense  and  appreciation  of  humanity ;  both  educated 
for  life  upon  this  earth,  human  or  real  life,  in  opposition 
to  the  excessively  religious  tendency  of  the  orthodox 
schools  of  the  time,  which  looked  upon  life  on  earth  as 
a  transitional  state  whose  only  value  lay  in  preparation 
for  a  future  existence.  They  differed,  however,  in  their 
means:  the  hwiianists  laid  almost  exclusive  stress  upon 
the  Latin  and  the  Greek  languages,  rhetoric,  poetry,  and 
classical  antiquities  —  or  upon  the  so-called  "  humani- 
ties"; while  the  realists  found  their  arcana  in  the 
''knowledge  which  is  most  worth"  —  in  mathematics, 
ph3'sics,  history,  geograph}^  and  the  niodern  languages. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  Rousseau,  the  greatest  of 
realists,  opened  the  way  for  entirely  new  aims  in  educa- 
tion by  Avhat  has  been  called  "a  return  to  nature." 
(74) 


ROUSSEAU.  75 

This  expression  must  not,  however,  be  understood  to 
mean  that  the  celebrated  French  philosopher  returned 
to  a  natural  system  that  had  previously  been  followed. 
While  the  human  being,  previous  to  the  humanists  and 
realists,  had  been  looked  upon  as  a  more  or  less  preter- 
natural existence — a  being  not  fully  subject  to  the  or- 
dinary laws  of  organic  growth  and  development  —  and 
the  human  mind,  at  best,  as  something  to  be  filled, 
Rousseau  wanted  man  to  be  looked  upon  as  an  organism, 
and  asked  that  education  should  be  an  independent  de- 
velopment of  the  nature  of  this  organism.  In  order  to 
accomplish  this,  he  required  an  absolute  return  to  Avhat 
he  called  the  natural  state  of  man;  that  is,  the  young 
must  be  educated  independent  of  civil  relations,  current 
prejudices,  dogmatic  authority,  etc. ;  and  the  aim  of  the 
educator  must  be  to  produce  an  absolutely  independent 
human  being  —  fitted,  however,  to  become  a  member  of 
society  —  with  powers  strengthened  by  individual  effort, 
with  convictions  and  a  will  dependent  only  on  reason, 
and  free  from  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  men. 

Individuality,  independence,  strength  of  character, 
nature,  reason,  are  the  watchwords  of  Rousseau's  educa- 
tional system ;  but  it  had  to  be  greatly  modified,  freed 
from  a  host  of  fallacies,  vaguenesses,  eccentricities,  and 
morbid  sentimentalities ;  a  srreat  number  of  insufficien- 
cies  had  to  be  supplied;  the  nature  of  man  had  to  be 
more  carefully  and  more  fully  set  forth,  before  it  could 
bring  good  to  mankind.  Still,  in  spite  of  its  faults,  it 
contains  the  germs  of  our  present  developing  education, 
and  Rousseau  is  justly  termed  its  father. 

Rousseau  was  not  a  practical  educator;  he  was  ex- 
clusively a  theorist :  he  did  very  little;  he  only  thought: 


76  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

hence  his  impractical  eccentricities.  Hence,  too,  his  life 
is  of  little  importance  to  us;  for  in  it  we  find  nothing 
to  imitate  and,  as  far  as  educational  practice  is  con- 
cerned, nothing  to  shun.  He  was  born  in  the  year 
1712,  at  Geneva,  in  Switzerland.  At  the  same  time  his 
mother  died  —  his  first  misfortune,  as  he  justly  terms  it. 
His  father,  a  watch-maker,  was  a  man  without  charac- 
ter, and  had  little  influence  upon  his  education.  After 
a  life  full  of  strange  vicissitudes  and  strangely  stained 
with  shameful  errors,  but  full,  too,  of  the  noblest  aspira- 
tions and  of  the  purest  and  most  generous  philanthropy, 
he  died  at  Ermenonville,  near  Paris,  in  1778,  and  found 
a  resting-place  in  the  Pantheon  in  the  year  1794. 

His  ideas  on  the  subject  of  education  are  laid  down 
in  the  celebrated  work  entitled  ^^  Emile,  or' Education,^^ 
which  appeared  in  1762.  It  consists  of  five  books,  of 
which  the  first  treats  of  the  management  of  new-born 
children,  and  more  particularly  of  Emile  up  to  the  time 
when  he  learned  to  talk,  or  to  his  second  year  of  life. 
The  second  book  brings  him  to  his  twelfth  year;  the 
third  book,  to  his  fifteenth ;  the  fourth,  to  his  marriage 
with  Sophia,  whose  education  forms  the  burden  of  the 
fifth  book.  Thus,  he  divides  education,  first,  into  boys' 
and  girls'  education,  but  devotes  much  more  attention 
to  the  former  than  to  the  latter. 

In  general,  Rousseau  starts  with  an  utter  horror  of 
the  civilization  of  his  time;  and  would,  therefore,  keep 
the  boy  entirely  aloof  from  this  civilization,  guard  him 
against  all  its  influences,  return  him  to  what  he  calls 
the  state  of  nature,  and  leave  him  to  his  normal  talents, 
wants,  and  inclinations.  "  All  is  good,"  he  exclaims, 
"as  it  comes  from  the  hands  of  the  Creator:  all  degen- 


ROUSSEAU.  77 

erates  under  the  hands  of  man."  Hence  he  calls  his 
system,  in  which  he  claims  to  follow  the  plans  of  the 
Creator,  nature's  course  of  development.  Education,  he 
says,  is  threefold:  man  is  educated  by  nature,  by  other 
men,  by  things.  The  inner  development  of  our  powers 
and  organs  is  the  education  of  nature;  the  use  we  are 
taught  to  make  of  this  development,  is  the  education 
b}^  men ;  and  what  we  learn  by  direct  experience,  from 
surrounding  circumstances,  is  education  by  things.  The 
first  of  these  we  have  not  in  our  power;  hence,  the  re- 
maining two  must  be  shaped  in  accordance  with  it,  if  we 
would  have  harmonious  culture.  His  Emile,  who  is  to 
be  thus  naturally  and  harmoniously  educated,  is  rich, 
healthy,  vigorous,  an  orphan,  and  inhabits  a  temperate 
climate  —  circumstances  which,  indeed,  are  not  necessa- 
rily natural  or  co-existent,  but  which  enable  Rousseau 
to  place  Emile  in  the  hands  of  an  excellent  tutor,  and 
to  bring  to  bear  upon  him  educational  influences,  free 
from  all  kinds  of  prejudices,  preconceived  notions,  and 
conventional  ties. 

Of  this  tutor  Rousseau  asks  that  he  educate  Emile  for 
a  man  —  a  human  being  —  for  the  common  human  voca- 
tion, and  not  for  any  special  calling,  not  even  for  citizen- 
ship. His  highest  guiding  principle  must  be,  in  what- 
ever he  does,  to  educate  according  to  nature,  i.  e.,  in 
accordance  with  the  nature  of  the  boy,  with  his  talents, 
powers,  wants,  individual  peculiarities  —  in  accordance 
with  the  rights  and  the  welfare  of  the  child.  In  no  case 
must  the  tutor  allow  himself  to  be  guided  by  arbitrary 
laws,  fashionable  follies,  or  thoughtless,  servile  obedience 
to  temporary  customs,  notions,  and  tendencies.  "  Nature," 
he  says,  "  creates  neither  princes,  nor  nobles,  nor  states- 


78  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

men.  If  you  educate  the  pupil  exclusively  for  a  certain 
position,  you  make  him  unfit  for  every  other.  Whether 
my  pupil  is  destined  for  war,  for  the  church,  or  for  the 
bench,  is  of  little  concern  to  me.  To  live,  life,  is  the 
calling  which  he  is  to  learn  from  me.  When  I  shall  be 
done  with  him,  he  will  be  neither  statesman,  nor  soldier, 
nor  priest;  he  will  be  a  human  being  —  a  man.  Natural 
education  must  fit  man  for  all  human  relations."  Again, 
speaking  of  the  importance  of  studying  the  child's  na- 
ture, he  exclaims  :  "  They  do  not  know  the  nature  of  the 
child;  inconsequence  of  the  false  notions  that  lead  them, 
they  go  further  astray  the  further  they  progress.  Even 
the  most  reasonable  are  guided  by  what  is  suitable  for 
men  of  science,  without  considering  what  the  children 
can  comprehend.  They  always  seek  the  man  in  the  boy, 
without  reflecting  what  he  is  before  he  is  a  man.  Begin, 
therefore,  with  the  study  of  3'our  pupils."  If  Rousseau 
had  done  nothing  else  than  to  enounce  and  establish 
these  anthropological  principles  of  education,  he  would 
have  done  enough  to  entitle  himself  to  the  gratitude  of 
succeeding  generations. 

On  the  basis  of  these  principles  he  builds  his  system 
of  education.  In  this,  physical  education  occupies  a 
prominent  place.  His  rules  coincide  mostly  with  those 
of  Locke,  whose  "  Thoughts  on  Education "  he  knew  and 
esteemed  very  highly.  He  holds  that  physical  is  inti- 
mately connected  with  moral  education;  and  he  looks 
upon  bodily  weakness  and  infirmity  as  a  source  of  moral 
indisposition  and  as  a  great  danger  to  character,  while 
health  and  vigor  give  mental  serenity  and  impart 
strength  to  the  will. 

He  maintains  that  there  is  no  original  depravity  in 


ROUSSE  _ 


the  human  heart;  that  there  is  n6t  ei'n\tiff4vi^^jl^ihe 
heart  which  has  not  come  from  without.  He^e,  early 
education  should  be  mostly  negative ;  it  should  consist 
in  keeping  the  heart  free  from  vice  and  the  understand- 
ing free  from  error.  He  w^ould  satisfy  the  natural  wants 
of  the  child  readil}^,  yet  within  strict  limits  of  necessity 
and  wholesomeness.  He  is  opposed  to  every  sort  of  un- 
natural restraint  and  tyranny,  as  well  as  to  all  premature 
moralizing;  on  the  other  hand,  he  would  guard  with 
equal  zeal  against  every  thing  that  tends  to  enervation, 
against  all  superfluous  assistance,  against  the  pamper- 
ing of  whimsical  appetites,  against  whatever  might  mis- 
lead the  child  into  hypocrisy,  cunning,  or  falsehood  in 
word  or  deed. 

The  child  must  learn  to  adapt  itself  to  circumstances; 
must  learn  to  submit  to  physical  necessity ;  must  be  led 
gradually  to  correct  ideas,  sentiments,  inclinations,  and 
actions  by  actual  relations  of  life.  Its  own  experience 
must  teach  it  how  to  distinguish  the  useful  from  the  in- 
jurious; must  make  it  prudent,  a  lover  of  the  good. 

About  the  fifteenth  year  of  his  life,  Emile  is  intro- 
duced to  society,  where  he  may  become  attached  to 
others,  leajn  to  respect  and  love  his  equals.  Heretofore 
he  has  felt,  striven,  acted  for  himself  in  rural  seclusion; 
now  it  is  time  that  he  should  learn  to  feel,  strive,  and 
act  for  others  —  should  fit  himself  for  society.  Rousseau 
contends  that  he  does  this  under  unusually  favorable 
circumstances ;  that  envy,  hatred,  jealousy,  and  malice 
have  found  no  room  in  his  heart,  because  he  had  no 
opportunity  to  compare  himself  with  any  one  else; 
because  no  one  had  stood  in  his  way,  and  the  vices  of 
society  could  exercise  no  influence  over  him.     He  has 


80  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

strengthened  and  exercised  his  eyes  in  order  to  see  cor- 
rectly; his  heart,  in  order  to  feel  correctly.  He  is  con- 
trolled by  no  authority  but  that  of  reason.  He  is  ready 
to  distinguish,  in  social  life,  appearance  from  reality, 
evil  from  good;  he  is  ready  to  appreciate  the  degen- 
erating influence  of  civilization,  to  esteem  human 
worth,  to  pity  the  degenerate  race,  to  help  and  serve 
liis  neighbor,  to  love  his  native  land,  to  aid  public 
welfare;  in  short,  to  become  a  humane  and  moral,  a 
useful  and  happy  member  of  society. 

For  intellectual  culture,  Rousseau  demands  clearly 
and  decisively  all  the  principles  which,  through  and 
since  Pestalozzi,  have  become  the  guiding-stars  of  edu- 
cation:  training  of  the  senses;  self-activity;  organic 
development;  continuity;  evolution  of  the  powers; 
lively  interest.  He  makes  war  upon  mechanical  train- 
ing, cramming,  over- work,  superficiality,  and  precocity; 
and  condemns  words  without  thoughts,  as  well  as  sym- 
bols without  things.  Even  with  reference  to  the  teach- 
ing of  various  branches  of  instruction,  he  is  fully  up  to, 
nay,  in  advance  of  our  time. 

He  asks  that  geography  should  begin  with  the  house 
and  place  of  abode,  and  points  with  bitter  humor  to  a 
manual  whose  first  question  was,  "  What  is  the  world  ? " 
and  to  an  answer  once  given,  "  A  ball  of  pasteboard." 
Home  geography  should  be  the  starting-point ;  the  pupil 
should  draw  maps  of  the  neighborhood,  in  order  to  learn 
how  maps  are  made  and  what  they  show. 

Instruction  in  physics  he  would  begin  with  the  sim- 
plest experiments,  illustrating  the  most  common  and 
obvious  phenomena;  and  he  would  have  teacher  and 
pupil  construct   the  instruments  used.     Yet  he  would 


ROUSSEAU.  81 

have  the  experiments  form  a  chain,  by  the  aid  of 
which  they  may  be  better  retained  in  the  memory; 
for  facts  and  demonstrations  entirely  isolated  do  not 
remain  there. 

He  would  not  introduce,  before  the  age  of  fifteen,  any 
branches  of  speculative  knowledge,  or  any  that  refer  to 
social  relations,  or  are  based  upon  reflection,  such  as 
knowledge  of  men,  history,  politics,  morals,  religion, 
etc.;  because,  before  this  age,  there  are  no  independent 
starting-points  in  the  child's  mind;  because,  before 
this  time,  the  pupil  is  not  ready,  not  ripe  for  these 
jpranches. 

Even  reading  and  writing  should  not  be  undertaken 
with  Emile  before  his  twelfth  year,  since,  up  to  this  age, 
his  time  is  entirely  taken  up  with  the  study  of  the  book 
of  nature,  with  the  collection  of  experiences  and  ideas, 
through  the  medium  of  his  own  senses,  at  the  hand 
of  his  tutor.  And  when  he  can  read,  his  first  and,  up 
to  his  fifteenth  year,  his  only  reading  book  is  Defoe's 
Robinson  Crusoe.  "  From  books,"  he  says,  "  men  learn 
to  talk  about  what  they  do  not  understand;  but  there 
is  one  book  which  may  be  considered  as  a  most  valuable 
treatise  upon  natural  education ;  a  book  which  might, 
for  a  long  time,  constitute  the  entire  library  of  the 
pupil,  namely,  Robinson  Crusoe.  Robinson,  alone  upon 
an  island,  obliged  to  make  every  thing  necessary  to 
himself,  becomes  the  boy's  ideal;  he  will  ask  only  for 
what  would  be  necessary  for  him  upon  a  Robinson's 
island." 

On  the  other  hand,  he  would  have  the  tutor  visit 
workshops  with  his  pupil,  so  that  the  latter  may  learn 
to  esteem  and  appreciate  rightly  the  dignity  and  value 


82  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

of  human  labor;  and  he  would  have  Emile  himself 
learn  some  respectable  trade  —  for  instance,  that  of  a 
carpenter  —  in  order  to  cure  him  of  the  then  current 
prejudices  against  trades.  "Forj"  he  exclaims  prophet- 
ically (the  book  was  written  1757),  "  we  are  approaching 
a  crisis  —  the  century  of  revolutions.  It  is  impossible 
that  the  great  monarchies  of  Europe  can  last  long .... 
Happy  will  he  be,  then,  who  shall  understand  how  to 
leave  the  condition  which  has  left  him,  and  to  remain 
a  man  in  spite  of  fate." 

Esthetic  culture  received  as  little  favor  in  the  eyes 
of  Rousseau  as  it  had  received  in  those  of  his  predecessor 
Locke;  a  position  which  is  fully  explained  by  his  real- 
istic tendency,  by  his  indignation  at  the  degeneracy  of 
the  arts,  and  by  his  excessive  fear  of  precocity  and 
pseudo-culture.  He  is  poetically  eloquent  against  elo- 
quence and  poetry,  and  demands  clearness,  simplicity, 
even  coldness.  Fables  are  wholly  condemned  by  him ; 
he  contends  that  they  are  suitable  only  for  men;  that 
children  must  receive  nothing  but  the  "unadorned, 
naked  truth." 

Religious  culture  receives  a  great  share  of  his  atten- 
tion. Yet,  in  accordance  with  his  views  on  intellectual 
culture,  it  must  be  postponed,  as  far  as  religious  ideas 
are  concerned,  to  a  late  period.  In  his  fifteenth  year, 
Emile  did  not  yet  know  that  he  had  a  soul,  and  Rousseau 
fears  that  he  might  find  it  out  too  soon  in  his  eighteenth. 
For  the  period  of  education  and,  in  this  case,  not  before 
the  fifteenth  year,  only  natural  religion  is  considered 
suitable.  He  would  develop  belief  in  God  and  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  by  means  of  contemplations  of  nature, 
of  man,  of  virtue,  of  conscience,  of  fate,  etc.     He  speaks 


ROUSSEAU.  83 

with  the  greatest  enthusiasm  of  Christianity  and  opposes 
materialism. 

Also,  in  the  fifth  book,  discussing  the  education  of 
Sophie,  he  treats  religious  culture  with  great  considera- 
tion. But  he  asks  that  religion  should  never  be  made  a 
matter  of  compulsion  or  sorrow,  never  a  task  or  dut}' ; 
and  that  the  girls  should  more  love  than  learn  religion. 
Prayers  should  be  said  in  their  presence,  but  they  should 
not  be  forced  to  learn  these  by  heart.  They  should  be 
accustomed  to  feel  themselves  constantly  in  the  presence 
of  God,  and  should  devote  their  lives  to  a  worship  con- 
sisting in  doing  good.  Their  religion  should  be  of  the 
heart,  not  of  the  head. 

,  'Among  the  many  faults  and  inconsistencies  of  Rous- 
seau's system,  whose  chief  features  I  have  attempted  to 
sketch,  the  most  glaring  are  the  entire  absence  of  family 
training,  the  relatively  inferior  position  assigned  to  the 
female  sex,  the  almost  exclusive  reliance  upon  direct 
experience  and  negative  education,  and  the  excessive 
withholding  of  positive  instruction  in  mental  culture, 
the  unreasonable  and  morbid  hatred  of  society,  and  the 
extreme  postponement  of  social  education. 

Among  its  many  virtues,  I  would  gratefully  point  out 
the  enunciation  of  correct  principles  of  intellectual  cul- 
ture, based  upon  the  laws  of  organic  development ;  and, 
above  all,  the  establishment  of  the  anthropological  prin- 
ciples of  education :  the  recognition  of  individual  human 
worth  as  the  highest  criterion  of  excellence,  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  fact  that  social  excellence  presupposes  indi- 
vidual excellence,  and  the  vindication  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  children.  In  the  light  of  these  great  excel- 
lences,  the   faults  of  his   system  lose  their  pernicious 


84  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

character  to  a  great  extent,  and  appear  as  salutary  rem- 
edies directed  against  evils  peculiar  to  the  educational 
systems  of  his  time.  And  his  great  work  on  education, 
"  Eiiiile"  in  spite  of  its  one-sidedness,  its  Platonic  ideal- 
ity, its  insufficiencies,  is  still,  as  Goethe  terms  it,  the 
gospel  of  natural  education,  the  germ  that  grew  into 
the  developing  education  of  our  days. 


\ 


LECTURE   VIII. 

INFLUENCE  OF  MODERN  PHILOSOPHERS:    KANT  —  FICHTE  — 

RICHTER  —  SCHOPENHAUER  —  HEGEL  —  ROSENKRANZ  — 

HERBART  —  BENECKE  —  SPENCER. 

The  work  of  polishing,  preparing,  and  arranging  the 
raw  material  furnished  by  the  impetuous  Rousseau,  as 
far  as  the  aims  of  education  are  concerned,  was  accom- 
plished by  philosophers  like  Kant,  Fichte,  Richter, 
Schopenhauer,  Hegel,  and  Rosenkranz. 

Kant  maintains  that  the  objects  of  education  are 
threefold:  moral,  technical,  and  pragmatical.  The  moral 
object  is  the  absolute  one,  and  is  attained  in  morality; 
the  technical  object,  in  skill;  the  pragmatical  object, 
in  prudence.  Education  must  cultivate,  civilize,  mor- 
alize man.  Children  are  to  be  educated  not  for  the 
present,  but  for  future  generations,  i.  e.,  in  accordance 
with  the  ideal  of  mankind  and  of  its  destiny.  Onl}^ 
on  the  basis  of  this  principle,  progress  —  a  future  better 
condition  of  mankind  —  is  possible. 

In  addition  to  culture,  education  comprises  sustenance 
(nursing,  fostering),  discipline,  and  instruction  In 
sustenance,  it  is  needful  to  follow  nature  as  much  as 

(85) 


86  PIISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

possible,  to  keep  children  from  injury  and  from  a  per- 
nicious use  of  their  powers.  Discipline  is  to  keep  the 
child  from  losing  its  humanity  by  yielding  to  its  ani- 
mal appetites.  Instruction  must  give  the  child  knowl- 
edge and  skill ;  it  attends  to  physical  development,  but 
mainly  to  mental  culture. 

In  education,  it  is  all-important  to  establish  always 
the  true  reasons,  and  to  render  them  intelligible  and 
agreeable  to  the  child.  The  teacher  must  first  make 
his  pupil  intelligent,  then  rational,  then  learned.  The 
pupil  must  not  learn  thoughts,  but  he  must  learn  to 
think;  he  must  not  be  carried,  but  led,  if  we  would 
make  him  independent.  The  lower  faculties  must  be 
cultivated  only  with  reference  to  the  higher;  for  in- 
stance, memory,  only  with  reference  to  the  service  it 
renders  to  intelligence.  Virtue  is  not  inborn,  but  ac- 
quired by  instruction  and  practice. 

Among  the  methods  of  instruction,  he  prefers,  wherever 
it  is  practicable,  the  Socratic,  heuristic,  or  developing 
method ;  for  he  says,  "  nothing  is  comprehended  so  fully 
and  distinctly,  nothing  retained  so  firmly,  as  that  which 
we  find  ourselves." 

Fichte  insists,  if  possible,  still  more  strongly  upon 
morality  as  the  absolute  aim  of  education,  and  lays 
very  great  stress  upon  freedom  —  independence  from  ex- 
ternal motives.  Only  what  is  done  from  free  determina- 
tion, without  the  least  external  motive,  is  moral;  hence 
the  absurdity  of  using  hope  of  rewards  and  fear  of  pun- 
ishments as  means  to  lead  to  virtue.  Again,  man  is  not 
alone  in  this  world ;  he  is  a  man  among  men,  a  member 
of  a  community  of  rational  beings.  As  such,  and  only 
as  such,   he   must   be   considered   and   educated   up  to 


FICHTE  — RICHTER.  87 

maturity,  when  he  may  choose  his  calling  for  life.  All 
education  for  special  callings  or  stations  in  life,  before 
that  time,  he  considers  absurd  and  inhuman. 

He  contends  that  early  education  is,  and  can  be,  only 
in  the  hands  of  the  parents,  who,  as  a  last  resort  in  their 
efforts  to  lead  the  child  to  moralitj^,  may  —  nay,  must  — 
employ  force.  They  should  be  careful,  however,  not  to 
destroy  free  obedience,  childlike  regard  for  the  superior 
goodness  and  wisdom  of  parents;  and  they  should  ever 
remain  mindful  of  the  fact  that  they  are  to  bring  up 
free  human  beings,  and  not  machines  devoid  of  a  will. 
He  designates  as  the  representatives  of  education  in 
the  community,  at  a  later  period,  the  learned  man 
who  is  to  develop  intelligence,  free  insight;  the  moral 
educator  who  is  to  develop  that  good-will,  that  charac- 
ter without  which  intelligence,  free  insight,  has  no 
value;  and  the  sesthetic  artist  who,  standing  between 
the  other  two,  must  bring  about  a  union  between 
intelligence  and  will. 

Richter  is  the  apostle  of  ideal  individuality.  "Each 
one  of  us,"  he  says,  "has  in  himself  his  ideal  prize 
man  —  that  is,  the  harmonious  maximum  of  all  his  in- 
dividual predispositions ;  and  it  is  the  business  of  edu- 
cation to  develop  him  into  full  growth."  At  the  same 
time,  he  asks,  with  Kant,  that  education  should  elevate 
above  the  spirit  of  the  times,  and  prepare  for  future 
generations.  "  A  child,"  he  exclaims,  "  should  be  more 
sacred  to  you  than  the  present,  which  consists  of  things 
and  adults.  Through  the  child  you  move,  although  la- 
boriously, by  means  of  the  shorter  lever-arm  of  mankind, 
the  longer  one."  Richter  lays  great  stress  on  physical 
education ;  but  he  advises  moderation,  and  is  particular 


88  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

to  let  physical  exercise  follow,  not  precede,  intellectual 
effort. 

Intellectual  education,  as  well  as  the  physical,  he 
would  begin  at  birth.  Its  element  of  life,  as  he  calls 
it,  he  finds  in  cheerfulness.  "Cheerfulness,"  he  says, 
"is  the  sky  under  which  every  thing  thrives,  except 
poison.  Cheerfulness  is,  at  the  same  time,  soil,  flower, 
and  wreath  of  virtue.  What  warmth  is  to  the  body, 
cheerfulness  is  to  the  soul."  Hence,  he  attaches  much 
importance  to  the  plays  of  children.  "  Beasts,"  he  says, 
"play  only  with  the  body;  but  children,  with  the  soul." 
Still,  here  too,  he  counsels  moderation,  and  warns  against 
excess  as  highly  pernicious.  For  the  school,  he  gives  no 
special  directions. 

His  moral  training  is,  even  where  he  punishes,  based 
upon  the  gentle  rule  of  love.  He  dislikes  precept,  and 
relies  upon  example  as  the  best  teacher;  for  he  says, 
"life  is  kindled  only  by  life;  hence,  the  highest  in  the 
child  is  aroused  only  by  example."  Thus,  in  every  di- 
rection, he  aims  at  the  independent  development  of  the 
ideal  individuality  in  every  child. 

•  Schopenhauer  lays  great  stress  upon  education  for 
real  life,  upon  the  production  of  accurate  understand- 
ing and  of  sound,  untrammeled  reason.  He  contends 
that  all  knowledge  must  have  an  intuitional  basis,  and 
that  all  abstract  ideas  must  rest  on  concrete  perceptions. 
He  would  offer  to  the  young  mind  nothing  that  it  can 
not  master  independently,  for  fear  of  creating  error  and 
prejudice.  Artificial  education,  he  says,  consists  in  cram- 
ming the  head  with  ideas,  by  means  of  teaching  and 
reading,  long  before  there  are  any  direct  perceptions 
in   the   mind   of  the   learner.     These  perceptions  are 


HEGEL  —  ROSENKRANZ.  89 

expected  to  be  supplied  afterward  by  experience;  but, 
up  to  this  problematical  time,  the  human  being  is  left 
at  the  mercy  of  false  impressions  and  of  prejudice. 
This  explains  to  him  the  fact  that  the  learned  are,  as 
a  general  thing,  less  liberally  gifted  with  common 
sense  than  the  unlearned. 

Hegel,  too,  considers  pedagogy  as  the  art  of  making 
man  a  moral  being.  For  him,  the  child  is,  naturally, 
neither  good  nor  bad,  since  it  has  no  knowledge  of 
either  good  or  evil.  To  teach  him  to  do  good  con- 
sciously and  freely,  he  designates  as  the  object  of  dis- 
cipline, of  moral  education.  The  most  important  factor 
of  moral  education  he  finds  in  the  family,  and  here  the 
mother  exerts  the  greatest  influence.  Of  intellectual 
education,  however,  the  school  is  the  most  powerful 
factor.  To  this  he  assigns,  above  all  things,  the  task 
of  teaching  the  art  of  thinking,  and  of  assisting  the 
child  in  its  efforts  to  obtain  fundamental  ideas.  At 
the  same  time,  he  looks  upon  the  school  as  the  transi- 
tion from  the  family  to  society.  His  ideas  are,  how- 
ever, followed  out  more  systematically  by  his  pupil 
Rosenkranz,  to  whom  I  pass. 

Rosenkranz  has  laid  down  his  ideas  on  education  in 
a  work  entitled  "  Pedagogics  as  a  System,^^  of  which  an 
admirable  translation,  by  Miss  Anna  C.  Brackett,  has 
been  published  lately  in  Mr.  Harris's  Journal  of  Specu- 
lative Philosojihy.  Education,  he  holds,  can  create  noth- 
ing ;  it  can  only  assist  in  developing  existing  actual 
possibilities  into  realities.  Education  can  attain  its 
aim  only  by  setting  the  pupil  to  work,  by  arousing 
his  self-activity.  The  general  form  of  culture  is  habit; 
but  the  free  subject  (individual)  must  control  the  sys- 
H.  p.— 8. 


90  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

tern  of  his  habits  so  that  their  existence  will  bring  him 
^  to  ever  greater  freedom.  The  subjective  limit  of  educa- 
tion he  finds  in  the  individuality  of  the  pupil;  its  ob- 
jective limit,  in  the  means  for  nursing  and  developing 
this  individuality.  The  absolute  limit  of  education  lies 
in  its  aim  which  is  the  emancipation  of  the  pupil,  re- 
sulting in  self-education,  or,  if  you  choose,  in  inde- 
pendence. 

Thus,  by  the  labors  of  these  men,  and  of  others  whose 
mention  I  must  here  forego,  the  crude  material,  fur- 
nished by  Rousseau,  was  crystallized  into  clear,  beau- 
tiful, symmetrical  purposes,  which  may  be  summed  up 
in  the  formula  with  which  we  started  in  the  first 
lecture,  and  which  defines  education  as  the  development 
of  independent  individualities,  fitted  for  life  in  society 
on  the  basis  of  morality  and  reason. 

This  formula  has  been  reached  by  reasoning  so  cau- 
tious, so  honest,  so  free  from  prejudice  and  passion, 
that  all  cotemporaneous  and  subsequent  developments 
of  science,  with  reference  to  the  nature  of  man,  have 
only  served  to  corroborate  it.  For  the  sake  of  clearness, 
allow  me  to  sketch  a  few  of  these  developments,  and 
to  select  for  this  purpose  the  studies  of  a  few  pioneers 
in  psychological  science. 

Among  the  principal  ones  of  these  and,  in  time  at 
least,  among  the  first,  is  Herbart,  who  taught  that  the 
"^  soul  is  a  simple  entity,  subject  to  no  change  in  its 
quality  —  the  real,  unchangeable  recipient  of  ideas. 
These,  subject  to  change,  assume  the  forms  —  among 
which  consciousness  is  one  —  whose  sum  is  called  mind. 
The  view  that  the  soul  has  a  number  of  powers,  of  a 
higher  and  lower  order,  he  declares  to  be  a  psycholog- 


HEKBART  — BENECKE.  91 

ical  myth.  Every  single  idea  manifests  itself,  in  con- 
sequence of  its  contrasts  with  others,  as  a  force  that 
sets  the  mass  in  motion.  Thinking,  feeling,  imagining 
are  only  specified  differences  in  the  self-preservation 
of  the  soul.  Consciousness  is  only  the  sum  of  relations 
in  which  the  soul  stands  to  other  entities.  Repressed 
ideas  that  have  not  entered  consciousness  are  feelings ; 
as  they  enter  consciousness,  they  become  appetites; 
and,  united  with  the  hope  of  success,  the  appetite 
becomes  will. 

Herbart  was  followed  by  Benecke,  who  contends  that 
the  soul,  far  from  being  a  simple  entity,  is  composed 
of  a  multiplicity  of  similar  powers.  These  he  divides 
into  elementary  (or  primordial)  and  evolved  powers; 
the  latter  resulting  from  the  union  of  elementary 
powers  with  impressions  and  ideas.  For  him,  then, 
the  soul  is  no  longer  a  constant,  but  a  variable,  subject 
to  development.  He  deems  the  existence  of  an  imag- 
ination, of  a  memory,  of  an  understanding,  of  a  will, 
etc.  —  as  powers  independent  of  ideas  —  an  absurdity ; 
and  he  shows  that  they  are  attributes  or  results  of  ideas. 
The  simplest  psychical  formations  are  the  sensuous  sen- 
sations, which  remain  as  traces  in  the  soul.  These  traces 
multiply.  The  similar  ones  attract  one  another,  and 
are  strengthened  into  perceptions;  similar  perceptions, 
by  an  analogous  process,  unite  to  form  concepts,  conclu- 
sions, judgments,  etc. ;  clearness  of  concepts,  clearness 
of  consciousness,  constitutes  understanding.  The  rapid- 
ity and  other  features  of  these  developments  depend, 
subjectively,  on  the  strength  (power  to  retain),  vivid- 
ness (tendency  to  assimilate),  and  susceptibility  of  the 
primordial    powers;    they  depend,   objectively,  on   the 


92  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

number  and  intensity  of  the  impressions,  percepts,  and 
concepts.  Thus,  starting  from  simple  premises,  he 
teaches  that  all  manifestations  of  psychical  force  are 
the  necessary  results  of  the  subjective  peculiarities  of 
the  primordial  powers,  and  of  the  multiplicity,  inten- 
sity, and  clearness  of  impressions. 

Herbart  had  shown  the  absurdity  of  assuming  a 
number  of  special,  independent  faculties  of  the  soul ; 
Benecke  had  proved  that  the  soul  is  capable  of  develop- 
ment—  a  thing  that  grows;  the  next  step  was  taken 
by  Herbert  Spencer,  who  shows  that  this  growth  is 
organic,  subject  to  the  ordinary  laws  of  organic  develop- 
ment. Thus,  he  made  psychology  strictly  a  natural 
science,  to  be  henceforth  modified,  extended  in  its 
scope,  corrected  in  its  errors,  limited  in  its  theories, 
by  the  same  laws  of  criticism  that  apply  to  other 
natural  sciences.  Availing  himself  of  the  discovery  of 
the  laws  of  evolution,  of  the  correlation,  the  inde- 
structibility, and  mutability  of  forces,  of  their  insep- 
arability from  matter,  he  has  built  up  a  system  of 
psychology  which,  on  account  of  its  clearness  and 
strict  adhesion  to  scientific  principles,  is  destined  to 
supplant,  or,  rather,  to  crown  the  work  of  his  predeces- 
sors, and  to  become  one  of  the  most  potent  agencies 
in  hastening  the  recognition  of  correct  principles  of 
education. 


LECTURE  IX. 


PESTALOZZI :   BIOGRAPHICAL. 


In  order  to  review  the  work  of  practical  educators 
during  the  period  sketched  in  the  last  lecture,  it  be- 
comes necessary  to  turn  back  to  the  last  quarter  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  Here  we  find  the  philanthropi- 
nists,  among  whom  Basedow,  Campe,  and  Salzmann 
occupy  the  highest  rank,  engaged  in  attempts  to  give 
practical  shape  to  Rousseau's  views  on  education.  They 
owe  their  generic  name  to  the  Philanthropinum  at 
Dessau,  an  institution  founded  by  Basedow  under  the 
auspices  of  Duke  Leopold;  an  institution  similar  to 
Francke's  pedagogium  for  the  education  of  the  sons  of 
the  nobility,  but  on  purely  philanthropic  and  cosmo- 
politan principles.  Campe  was  great  as  an  author  of 
this  school  of  pedagogy;  and  Salzmann  is  remarkable 
as  the  most  practical  of  its  followers,  his  philanthropi- 
num, near  Gotha,  is  the  only  one  that  has  continued 
its  existence  to  this  day. 

In  a  detailed  history  of  pedagogy,  the  consideration 
of  the  labors  of  these  men  could  not  be  passed  over 
without  injury  to  a  full   understanding  of  educational 

(93) 


94  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

progress;  but  my  limited  time  and,  more  yet,  my  spe- 
cific aim,  compel  me  to  content  myself  with  a  mere 
mention  of  them,  and  to  pass  at  once  to  a  more  promi- 
nent figure  —  to  Pestalozzi. 

Pestalozzi  was  born  on  the  12th  of  January,  1746,  at 
Zurich,  in  Switzerland.  He  lost  his  father,  a  physician, 
in  1751,  and  his  education  was  left  in  the  hands  of  a 
fond  mother  and  of  a  faithful  female  servant,  ^vho  had 
promised  the  dying  father  not  to  abandon  the  family. 
These  two  women  were  the  constant  and  too  watchful 
companions  of  his  childhood.  He  says  of  his  early  ed- 
ucation: "I  grew  uj)  in  the  care  of  the  kindest  mother, 
who  spoiled  me  wdth  excessive  tenderness.  From  one 
end  of  the  year  to  the  other,  I  was  kept  in  the  house. 
Every  essential  mean,  every  impulse  to  the  develop- 
ment of  manly  vigor,  manly  experience,  manly  disposi- 
tion, and  manly  exercise  were  wanting,  although  the 
peculiarities  and  weaknesses  of  my  individuality  needed 
them  very  much."  Perhaps  this  accounts  for  the  extra- 
ordinary want  of  practical  sense  that  characterized  all 
his  undertakings,  for  his  want  of  caution  and  circum- 
spection, for  his  excesssive  sentimentality,  and  for  a 
peculiar  almost  childishness  in  all  his  doings  and  say- 
ings. But  it  accounts,  too,  for  his  great  inexhaustible 
love  of  mankind,  for  his  unshaken  faith,  for  his  unlim- 
ited power  of  self-sacrifice,  and  for  the  fact  that  he 
assigned  to  the  mother  the  most  important  position  in 
the  education  of  children. 

He  received  his  scholastic  education  exclusively  in 
his  native  city.  Zurich  possessed,  at  that  time,  in 
addition  to  the  elementary  school,  a  so-called  German 
school,   in    which   ordinary  school  education  found  its 


PESTALOZZI.  95 

limit;  a  Latin  school,  which  prepared  for  the  learned 
professions;  and  a  higher  school,  intermediate  between 
the  gymnasia  and  the  universities  of  a  later  date. 
Pestalozzi  visited  these  schools  in  their  order.  The 
first  professional  study  to  which  he  devoted  himself 
was  that  of  theology,  but  he  soon  abandoned  this  in 
order  to  devote  himself  to  jurisprudence.  This,  too, 
failed  to  satisfy  him,  and,  in  1767,  he  left  school  in 
order  to  devote  himself  wholly  to  agriculture. 

He  had  read  Rousseau's  Emile,  which  had  appeared  a 
few  years  before,  and  he  was  affected  by  the  book  to  a 
remarkable  degree.  He  writes  about  this:  "As  soon  as 
this  book  appeared,  my  exceedingly  impractical  dream- 
sense  was  transformed  into  enthusiasm  by  this  exceed- 
ingly impractical  dream-book.  I  compared  the  educa- 
tion which  I  had  had,  in  the  prison  of  home  and  school, 
with  that  which  Rousseau  sketched  for  his  Emile.  The 
home  and  school  education  of  all  the  world  seemed  de- 
formed to  me,  and  I  thought  I  had  found  the  panacea 
for  all  these  evils  in  Rousseau's  Emile.''''  He  threw  his 
books  away,  burned  his  manuscripts,  and  went  to  a 
widely-known,  successful  farmer  in  the  Canton  of  Bern, 
to  study  the  art  of  cultivating  the  soil,  as  well  as  the 
sufferings  and  wants  of  the  country  people,  who  lan- 
guished at  that  time  in  a  condition  bordering  on  slavery 
and,  in  many  respects,  transcending  it  in  abjectness. 

A  year  afterward,  he  bought  a  tract  of  sterile  heath- 
land,  near  the  village  of  Birr,  in  the  Canton  of  Argau. 
He  had  a  house  built  on  his  farm,  and  devoted  the  land 
to  the  raising  of  madder.  These  lands,  which  he  named 
"Neuhof"  (the  New  Farm),  he  had  bought  with  money 
borrow^  on  the  prospects  of  a  favorable  marriage  with 


96  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

the  daughter  of  a  wealthy  Zurich  merchant.  She  became 
his  wife  at  Neuhof,  in  1769 ;  but  his  efforts  at  farming 
did  not  prove  successful,  the  creditor  withdrew  his  capi- 
tal, and  her  fortune  was  mostly  lost.  Pestalozzi  himself 
ascribes  these  misfortunes  to  his  absolute  practical  un- 
fitness, his  entire  want  of  skill  and  capacity.  The 
results  of  his  practical  efforts,  in  whatever  he  under- 
took, were  as  mean  as  his  plans  and  aspirations  were 
lofty.  He  himself  says  that  "there  was  an  immense 
contrast  between  his  aims  and  his  achievements,  be- 
tween what  he  wanted  to  do  and  what  he  did  and  could 
do." 

About  this  time,  he  conceived  the  plan  of  uniting  a 
poor-school  or,  rather,  a  home  for  poor  children,  with  his 
farm.  Several  cities  gave  material  support  to  the  enter- 
prise, and,  in  1775,  the  new  institution  was  opened  with 
fifty  children.  In  summer  they  were  to  be  occupied 
with  agricultural  pursuits;  in  winter,  with  spinning 
and  weaving.  In  leisure  hours  they  were  to  receive 
instruction  in  speaking,  reading,  writing,  etc.  The 
w^ants  of  the  children  were  to  be  supplied,  in  part  at 
least,  from  the  products  of  the  children's  work. 

The  new  enterprise  was  taken  up  with  enthusiasm, 
but  it  soon  began  to  deteriorate.  The  children,  mostly 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  beggars,  disliked  work,  and 
made  the  most  unreasonable  demands.  In  these  they 
were  abetted  by  their  parents,  who  continued  to  visit 
the  institution  for  the  purpose  of  extortion  and  com- 
plaint. Many  of  the  children  ran  away  as  soon  as  they 
had  received  new  clothes.  But  Pestalozzi  wanted  to 
persevere;  he  would  rather  "share  the  last  morsel  with 
his  children"  than  to  give  up  the  institution.     He  lived 


PESTALOZZI.  97 

"like  a  beggar,  in  order  to  teach  beggars  how  to  live 
like  human  beings."  At  last,  in  1780,  however,  the 
institution  had  to  be  given  up,  because  it  lacked  all  the 
necessaries  of  life.  "I  was  poor  now,"  says  Pestalozzi, 
in  utter  despondency;  *' I  fared  like  all  others  who 
become  poor  through  their  own  faults.  I  lost  all  con- 
fidence in  myself,  even  in  what  I  actually  was  and 
could  do.  My  friends,  too,  loved  me  only  hopelessly. 
All  who  knew  me  exj^ressed  the  opinion  that  I  was 
hopelessly  lost." 

But  the  self-sacrificing  fidelity  of  his  wife,  Anna 
Schulthess,  and  the  encouraging  words  of  an  influ- 
ential friend  at  Basle,  reassured  him.  During  the  same 
year,  in  1780,  he  published  his  first  work,  entitled 
'^  Evening  Hours  of  a  Hermit^^''  which  contained  the 
fundamental  thoughts  of  all  his  subsequent  efforts  in 
behalf  of  education.  In  this  book  he  attempted  to 
show,  with  the  warmth  and  affection  peculiar  to  his 
womanly  nature,  that  all  school  education  which  is  not 
built  upon  the  foundation  of  humane  education,  must 
mislead;  that  true  education  calls  for  the  development 
of  all  the  faculties  and  capacities  in  the  individual; 
that  this  purely  humane  education  must  precede  all 
training  for  special  stations  and  callings;  that  it  alone 
can  lead  to  an  independent,  honorable,  and  happy  life; 
that  all  instruction  and  all  practice  must  have  an  in- 
tuitional basis,  must  be  adapted  to  the  child's  peculiari- 
ties and  surroundings;  that,  in  these  things,  true  self- 
dependent  insight  must  take  the  place  of  authoritative 
verbiage,  of  dogmatic  tradition;  that  a  virtuous  character, 
coupled  with  a  deep  religious  sense,  is  the  highest  aim 

of  all  education.     "All  wisdom,"  he  says,   "rests  upon 
H.  p.— 9. 


98  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

the  vigor  of  a  good  heart  obedient  to  truth ;  and  all 
happiness,  upon  simplicity  and  innocence.  I  build  all 
liberty  upon  justice,  and  justice  upon  love;  and  the 
source  of  all  justice  and  of  all  earthly  blessings,  the 
source  of  love  and  charity,  rests  upon  the  great  thought 
that  all  are  children  of  God." 

The  next  year,  in  1781,  he  gave  to  the  world  his 
greatest  achievement,  a  book  entitled  "  Lienhard  and 
Gertrude:  a  Booh  for  the  People.''^  Gertrude,  the  heroine 
of  this  romance,  is  Pestalozzi's  ideal.  In  her  manage- 
ment of  the  household,  in  her  moral  influence  upon 
her  husband  —  more  especially,  however,  in  her  educa- 
tion of  her  children  and  in  her  aptness  to  teach  —  he 
held  her  up  in  this  remarkable  work  as  a  model  to  all 
mothers. 

The  schools  of  his  time  w^ere  in  a  miserable  condition; 
the  teachers  had  little  or  no  education;  the  nobility  and 
wealthier  classes  demoralized  and  oppressed  the  common 
people  ;  and  to  correct  these  errors  and  faults,  these  vices 
of  society,  Pestalozzi  wanted  to  place  the  education  of 
the  childre'h  of  the  common  people,  including  their 
instruction,  in  the  hands  of  the  mothers.  Thus  Pesta- 
lozzi, like  Rousseau,  aimed  at  a  thorough  regeneration 
of  the  race;  but,  unlike  Rousseau,  he  left  the  rising 
generation  in  its  natural  soil,  and  would  lead  it  to 
humanity  in  the  famil}^,  under  the  influence  of  ideal 
mothers.  For  Pestalozzi,  the  child  is  from  the  begin- 
ning a  social  being,  growing  up  in  truly  natural  sur- 
roundings, and  under  the  truly  natural  guidance  of  a 
mother  who  appreciates  her  responsibilities,  and  who 
has  the  necessary  tact,  skill,  knowledge,  energy,  and 
love  to  meet  them  fully. 


PESTALOZZI.  99 

Pestalozzi  himself  characterizes  the  aim  of  the  book. 


in  the  preface  to  the  second  edition,  as  an  attemj^t  "to 
effect  a  better  condition  of  the  people  on  the  basis  of 
the  actual  conditida^of  the  people  and  of  their  natural 
relations."  "  I  saw,"  he  says,  "  the  misery  of  the  people, 
and  Lienhard  and  Gertrude  were  my  sighs  over  this 
misery.  The  book  was  my  first  word  to  the  heart  of 
tlie  poor  and  forsaken  in  the  land.  It  was  my  first 
word  to  the  heart  of  those  who,  for  the  poor  and  for- 
saken, are  in  God's  stead  in  the  land.  It  was  my  first 
word  to  the  mothers  of  the  land,  and  to  the  heart  that 
God  gave  them,  to  be  to  their  children  what  no  human 
being  on  earth  can  be  in  their  stead."  "For,"  he  says 
in  another  place,  "if  the  home  is  not  a  holy  temple  of 
God,  if  the  mother  does  not  cultivate  the  head  and  heart 
of  the  child  naturally,  every  other  reform  of  social  con- 
ditions is  impossible." 

The  effect  of  this  work  fully  justified  Pestalozzi's 
expression  :  "  I  felt  its  worth  ;  but  only  as  a  man  who, 
in  his  dreams,  feels  the  value  of  a  good  fortune."  From 
all  sides,  from  high  and  low,  from  philanthropic  socie- 
ties, from  princes  and  statesmen,  honors,  thanks,  and 
invitations  poured  in  upon  the  author  of  Lienhard  and 
Gertrude.  But,  through  his  impractical  indecision,  all 
came  to  naught,  and  he  continued  to  bury  himself  on 
his  dilapidated  farm,  occasionally  throwing  out  an  arti- 
cle, a  pamphlet,  or  a  book,  until  1798,  when  he  pub- 
lished again  a  more  important  work,  entitled  ^^Investi- 
gations on  the  Course  of  Nature  in  the  Development  of  Man.'''' 

In  this  work  he  summed  up,  based  on  Rousseau  and 
Fichte,  his  views  upon  the  aims  of  education.  He 
holds   that    man   is    naturally   innocent   and  helpless; 


100  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

his  helplessness  leads  him  to  insight;  this  to  acquisi- 
tion, possession,  and,  ultimately,  to  society.  Social  rela- 
tions bring  about  a  life  of  legal  right  which  leads  to 
liberty.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  in  man  a  natural 
benevolence,  which  culminates  in  religion.  The  work 
is  valuable  as  a  casket,  containing  many  bright  jewels 
of  thought  and  sentiment,  but  of  little  value  as  a  system 
of  philosophy  or  as  a  basis  for  pedagogic  efforts. 

About  the  same  year  (1798),  the  French  devastated  the 
Canton  of  Unterwalden  and  burned  the  town  of  Stanz. 
Fatherless  and  motherless  orphans  wandered  about  the 
country  without  shelter,  food,  and  clothing.  Pestalozzi 
hastened  to  their  rescue.  The  government  placed  an 
abandoned  convent  near  Stanz  at  his  disposal.  This  he 
fitted  up  for  the  orphans,  of  whom  he  gathered  eighty 
between  the  ages  of  four  and  ten.  They  were  all  in  the 
highest  degree  neglected,  without  discipline,  ignorant, 
disorderly,  in  rags  and  filth  —  in  a  state  of  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  degeneracy.  To  these  outcasts  of 
society  Pestalozzi  w^ould  be  father,  teacher,  servant  — 
nay,  mother.  "A  seeing  man,"  he  himself  says,  "would 
not  have  ventured  to  do  this;  fortunately,  I  was  blind, 
else  I  should  not  have  ventured  upon  it." 

As  in  Neuhof,  he  began  by  uniting  instruction  with 
work,  but  he  soon  recognized  the  inadequacy  of  this 
mode  of  proceeding.  For  the  sake  of  better  progress, 
he  made  an  attempt  to  employ  the  older  children  as 
teachers  of  the  smaller  ones ;  he  also  introduced  rhythm- 
ical speaking  in  concert.  "  I  stood  in  their  midst,"  he 
says,  "spoke  sounds  to  them,  and  caused  them  to  imi- 
tate me ;  all  who  saw  it  were  astonished  at  the  effect. 
I  did  not  know  what  I  was  doing,  but  I  knew  what  I 


PBt5TAL0ZZI.  '  •  '  '  ^         101 

wanted  to  do,  and  that  was  death  or  attainment  of  my 
purpose."  However,  all  his  efforts  were  in  vain;  he 
had  undertaken  more  than  one  man  can  accomplish, 
and  his  institution  would  have  perished  of  its  own 
faults,  had  not  external  circumstances  caused  its  earlier 
dissolution.  In  the  summer  of  1799,  the  French  estab- 
lished a  military  hospital  in  his  convent;  most  of  the 
children  were  dispersed,  and  the  remainder  were  given 
in  charge  of  a  local  priest.  Pestalozzi  himself,  after  a 
short  rest,  accepted  a  position  as  teacher  in  an  elemen- 
tary school  at  Burgdorf,  in  the  Canton  of  Bern,  and 
repeated  or,  rather,  continued  his  experiments  in  sim- 
plifying elementary  instruction,  as  far  as  the  mechanism 
of  the  school  permitted  it. 

However,  the  limits  of  the  school  regulations  re- 
strained him  too  much,  and  he  established  in  the  next 
year,  with  an  assistant,  an  independent  educational 
institution  in  the  same  town.  Here  he  published  the 
book  ^^Hoiv  Gertrude  Teaches-  her  Children,^^  which  was 
followed,  in  1803,  by  the  ''  Book  for  Mothers:'  In  these 
works  he  laid  down  his  principles,  and  attempted  to 
show  mothers  how  they  can  become  the  elementary 
instructors  of  their  children,  thus  enabling  them  to  do 
without  the  school  for  this  purpose.  "For,"  said  he, 
"as  the  child  derives  its  first  physical  food  from  the 
mother,  so  it  should  also  obtain  its  first  mental  food 
from  the  same  God-given  source."  The  contents  of  these 
books  will  form,  however,  the  principal  burden  of  my 
next  lecture,  so  that  we  may  now  proceed  with  the  re- 
maining incidents  in  Pestalozzi's  life. 

In  1805,  Pestalozzi  established  his  institute  at  Yver- 
don,  situated  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  lake  of 


102  HfSTOJlY  Of  fedagogy. 

Neuenburg,  in  western  Switzerland,  where  he  continued 
until  1825.  Here  Pestalozzi  reached  the  summit  of  his 
glory.  Yverdon  became  a  center  of  attraction  to  which 
the  noblest  philanthropists  of  the  time,  from  the  plainest 
school-master  to  the  greatest  statesman,  made  pilgrim- 
ages, in  order  to  bring  away  a  sacred  enthusiasm  for 
popular  education.  From  all  countries  they  came  — 
from  France,  from  Germany,  Italy,  Spain,  even  from 
Russia  and  North  America.  Noble-hearted,  high-minded 
youths  joined  him  in  order  to  become  teachers  of  little 
children,  and  to  be  trained  as  his  assistants. 

In  1809,  his  institution  numbered  15  teachers,  165 
pupils  between  the  ages  of  six  and  seventeen,  from 
all  parts  of  the  world,  and  32  adults  that  studied  his 
methods.  He  writes,  about  this  time:  "The  difficulties 
that  opposed  my  enterprise  in  the  beginning  were  very 
great.  Public  opinion  was  wholly  against  me.  Thou- 
sands looked  upon  my  work  as  quackery,  and  nearly  all 
who  believed  themselves  competent  judges,  declared  it 
worthless.  Some  condemned  it  as  a  silly  mechanism; 
some  looked  upon  it  as  mere  memorizing,  while  others 
contended  that  it  neglected  the  memory  for  the  sake  of 
the  understanding;  some  accused  me  of  want  of  religion, 
and  others  of  revolutionary  intentions.  But,  thank  God, 
all  these  objections  have  been  overcome.  The  children 
of  our  institution  are  full  of  joy  and  happiness;  their 
innocence  is  guarded;  their  religious  feelings  are  fos- 
tered; their  minds  are  cultivated;  their  knowledge  in- 
creased; their  hearts  inspired  with  love  of  virtue.  The 
whole  is  pervaded  by  the  great  spirit  of  home-union ;  a 
pure  fatherly  and  brotherly  spirit  rules  all.  The  chil- 
dren feel  free ;  their  activity  is  incited  by  their  occupa- 


PESTALOZZI.  103 

tions;  affection  and  confidence  elevate  and  guide  their 
hearts." 

Still  there  were  a  number  of  evils  which,  jDerhaps  in 
his  enthusiasm  in  consequence  of  unexpected  success, 
he  did  not  see.  There  were  the  frequent  interruptions 
by  the  visits  of  princes  and  ministers  whom  the  master 
wished  to  gain  for  his  ideas;  there  was  the  want  of  cul- 
ture on  the  part  of  his  teachers,  who  had  little  chance  to 
correct  their  faults  on  account  of  the  deficient  arrange- 
ments of  the  household;  there  was  the  want  of  knowl- 
edge of  men,  of  organizing  talent,  of  pedagogic  quickness 
of  apprehension,  of  practical  circumspection  and  me- 
thodic skill  on  the  part  of  Pestalozzi  himself;  and,  as 
a  consequence  perhaps,  the  devil  of  partisanship  that 
invaded  the  hearts  of  his  teachers,  and  caused  an  open 
rebellion  shortly  after  the  death  of  his  admirable  wife. 

In  1816,  a  3''ear  after  the  demise  of  Anna  Schulthess, 
twelve  of  his  teachers  seceded  from  the  institution. 
Still  he  lingered  on  and,  in  1818,  even  succeeded  in 
adding  to  his  charge  a  poor-school  in  the  vicinity  of 
Yverdon.  This  step  contributed  not  a  little  to  a  loss 
of  original  purposes,  and  to  a  final  dissolution  of  his 
whole  enterprise  in  1825. 

"  Truly,  it  seems  to  me,"  he  writes  at  this  time,  ''  as 
if  by  this  retirement  I  made  an  end  to  life  itself;  it 
pains  me  so."  He  found  an  asylum  at  Neuhof,  with  his 
grandson.  Here  he  wrote  his  autobiography  and  his 
^^  Swan's  Strains,^^  in  which  he  attempted  to  express,  in 
a.  concise  form,  all  that  he  had  thought  and  felt  on  the 
subject  to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life. 

On  the  17th  of  February,  1827,  he  died.  His  last 
words   were:    "I  forgive   my  enemies;    may  the}'  now 


104  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

find  peace,  as  I  enter  everlasting  peace !  I  should  have 
liked  to  live  a  month  longer,  in  order  to  finish  my 
task ;  but  I  thank  God  that  he  calls  me  away  from  life 
on  earth.  And  j^ou,  my  dearest  ones,  may  you  live  in 
peace,  and  find  your  happiness  in  the  quiet  life  of 
home ! " 


LECTURE   X. 

PESTALOZZI  :    HIS    PRINCIPLES   AND   VIEWS. 

A  STRANGE  phenomenon,  indeed,  is  this  Pestalozzi. 
For  thirty  years,  as  he  says,  in  the  height  of  his  suc- 
cesses, he  had  not  had  time  to  read  a  book,  so  that  he 
was  more  ignorant  of  the  pedagogic  achievements  of 
his  predecessors  than  the  commonest  school-master.  He 
lacked  the  talent  of  organizing,  was  deficient  in  prac- 
tical skill,  a  mere  dreamer.  By  a  sort  of  accident  he 
had  become  acquainted  with  Rousseau's  and,  afterward, 
Fichte's  views.  He  was  fired  by  these,  and  induced 
to  undertake  an  entire  reorganization  of  elementary 
education. 

Himself,  he  failed  in- all  he  undertook;  but  he  suc- 
ceeded in  kindling  in  others  an  unprecedented  enthu- 
siasm for  popular  education ;  he  succeeded  in  leading 
a  host  of  others  to  unprecedented  success.  And  this 
he  did  not  accomplish  by  his  own  success,  not  by  the 
force  of  argument  or  example,  but  only  and  alone  by 
the  force  of  his  great  love,  which  constituted  his 
genius. 

He  says  of  himself:  "  What  I  am,  I  am  by  my  heart." 

(105) 


106  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

He  was  desirous  to  contribute  his  share  in  enhancing 
the  welfare  of  the  race,  in  neutralizing  and  eradicating 
the  physical  and  moral  misery  of  mankind;  and  he 
looked  upon  education  as  the  principal  mean  to  ac- 
complish this.  His  earnest  pleadings  for  education,  as 
the  chief  factor  in  the  elevation  and  consequent  relief 
of  the  masses,  brought  conviction  to  all,  high  and  low, 
ruled  and  rulers,  so  that  he  is  justly  called  the  "  father 
of  popular  education."  Through  him,  Germany  became 
the  land  of  pedagogy;  but  his  influence  went  far  beyond 
the  limits  of  German  lands. 

Tiie  family  seemed  to  him  the  proper  center  of  all 
educational  efforts;  but  although  he  went  too  far  in 
this  view,  and  although,  in  his  own  direct  labors,  he 
aimed  his  efforts  mainly  at  the  school,  he  never  lost 
sight,  not  even  theoretically,  of  his  great  discovery 
that  human  nature  itself  must  dictate  the  principles 
of  education. 

This  discovery  alone,  urged  by  him  again  and  again, 
with  the  eloquence  of  earnestness,  upon  all  whom  his 
words  and  deeds  could  reach,  would  have  sufficed  to 
make  him  one  of  the  greatest  benefactors  of  mankind. 
He  thus  became  the  inaugurator  of  a  new  epoch  in 
education,  the  epoch  of  purely  humane  education ;  he 
created  the  possibility  of  basing  the  science  of  peda- 
gogy upon  anthropology  and  natural  science;  of  making 
it,  indeed,  itself  one  of  the  branches  of  natural  science. 

His  views  of  the  nature  and  destiny  of  man  were 
rather  vague,  but,  on  the  Avhole,  correct.  They  were 
not  reached  by  careful  philosophical  analysis,  but 
seemed  to  have  sprung  up  in  him,  waked  into  existence 
by  the  magic  power  of  his  genius.     Man  appeared  to 


PESTALOZZI.  107 

Pestalozzi  in  every  direction  as  an  organism ;  an  inde- 
pendent organism,  as  far  as  he  alone  is  concerned;  an 
organic  part,  if  viewed  with  reference  to  society,  the 
race,  or  the  universe.  To  enter  into  harmony  with  the 
whole  —  into  communion  with  the  Being  of  beings,  with 
God  —  without  losing  his  individuality,  seemed  to  Pes- 
talozzi  man's  highest  destiny.  Justice  and  love  were 
to  him  man's  highest  virtues,  in  the  intercourse  with 
others;  self-reliance  the  highest  quality,  with  reference 
to  himself. 

For  the  education  of  man  as  an  individual,  as  a  sepa- 
rate individuality,  Pestalozzi  found  tlie  general  formula 
in  the  simple  and  single  word  —  evolution,  development. 
Whatever  powers  man  has,  must  be  developed  harmoni- 
ously, so  as  to  form  a  harmonious,  well-balanced  whole. 
All  individual  development  manifests  itself  as  activity, 
as  self-activity.  This  self-activity  has  two  phases:  one 
from  without  inward,  receptive,  acquisitive,  learning; 
the  other  from  within  outward,  expressive,  productive, 
creative. 

The  former,  the  receptive  phase  of  self-activity,  is 
designated  by  the  term  intuition — anschauung,  looking 
at;  and  the  instruments  which  the  mind  uses,  when 
engaged  in  it,  are  the  senses.  This  phase  will  always 
precede  the  expressive,  reproductive,  or  creative  activ- 
ity; it  forms  the  basis,  the  foundation  of  the  latter. 
Hence  Pestalozzi's  great  principle :  All  instruction  must 
be  intuitional  —  anschauUch  —  must  reach  the  mind 
through  its  senses.  This  phase  of  activity  engaged  his 
attention  almost  exclusively,  as  far  as  his  reformatory 
efforts  in  methods  of  teaching  extended ;  and  he  fur- 
nished an  ABC  of  instruction  which,  while  it  was  liable 


108  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

to  many  improvements  in  form  and  scope,  has  never 
been  assailed  in  its  principles.  He  was  well  aware  of 
the  fact  that  this  was  only  half  the  work  required,  and 
he  labored  hard  to  find  an  ABC  of  skill  —  of  art,  if  you 
choose  —  of  the  expressive  phase  of  self-activity,  but 
without  success.  To  find  this  ABC  was  reserved  for 
Froebel;  but  were  not  Pestalozzi's  achievements  work 
enough,  as  well  as  glory  enough,  for  one  man? 

He  labored  with  great  success  to  transform  learning, 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  into  an  actual  mental 
assimilation.  And,  in  doing  this,  he  gained  another 
great  point.  He  established  beyond  controversy  that 
the  ultimate  aim  of  instruction  is  not  to  furnish  man 
with  knowledge  and  skill,  but  that  these  are  valuable 
mainly  as  means  to  develop  the  mind  and  other  powers 
of  the  human  being.  In  other  words,  the  material  of 
instruction  was  to  be  used,  in  the  first  and  foremost 
place,  as  an  instrument  for  the  development  of  the 
organism. 

Hence,  the  mode  in  which  the  learner  approaches 
the  material  of  instruction  or,  respectively,  the  mode 
in  which  it  is  brought  to  him,  is  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance, since  it  determines  the  beneficial  or  injurious, 
the  furthering  or  hindering  effect  of  instruction,  with 
reference  to  mental  development.  Now,  for  the  best 
way,  he  looks  in  the  nature  of  man  —  that  is,  in  the 
insight  which  the  anthropological  and  psychological 
study  of  man  has  furnished.  Thus  he  chose  the  only 
way  that  leads  to  truth ;  thus  he  freed  pedagogy  from 
all  preconceived  and  dogmatical  limitations,  from  all 
arbitrary  fetters;  made  of  it  a  natural  science,  to  live 
and  grow,  henceforth,  like  other  natural  sciences.    Thus 


PESTALOZZI.  109 

he  laid  low  and  ejected  from  the  school  the  evil  spirits 
of  pedantr}^  that  claim  to  be  in  full  possession  of  truth, 
and  form  an  insuperable  barrier  to  progress;  and  in- 
stalled in  their  stead  that  modest  search  for  truth  which 
moves  always,  and  always  forward. 

What  a  great  stride  forward  he  himself  made  will 
appear  even  from  a  superficial  review  of  his  principles 
of  teaching,  as  laid  down  in  his  last  two  books.  He 
begins  with  the  training  of  the  senses,  with  perception, 
or,  l)etter,  with  perceptions;  from  these  he  leads  the 
child  gradually,  surely,  and  as  much  as  possible  by  its 
own  efforts,  to  conceptions,  judgments,  conclusions. 
Every  idea  the  child  possesses  has  grown  from  the 
seed,  and  grown  strong  in  indigenous  soil,  in  the 
child's  own  mind.  There  is  no  pushing,  no  cramming, 
no  pouring  in ;  but  only  growth  —  healthy,  vigo»3US,  con- 
tinuous, natural  growth.  What  the  child  can  not  grasp 
is  not  forced  upon  it ;  whatever  is  beyond  its  comprehen- 
sion is  left  for  future  time  and  increased  power. 

Specially,  he  proceeds  always  from  known  things  to 
related  unknown  things,  so  that  the  learner  may  ever 
find  a  place  for  the  new  acquisition,  may  be  enabled  to 
bring  the  new  acquisition  into  organic  connection  with 
what  he  already  has  or,  rather,  with  what  he  already  is. 
Abstract  ideas  grow  gradually,  almost  laboriously,  from 
concrete  notions.  He  is  a  declared  enemy  of  all  mere 
verbiage,  and  fails  to  look  upon  parrot-like  repetition 
of  a  statement  or  of  an  idea  as  knowledge.  On  the 
contrary,  he  asks  that  the  child  must  develop  the  idea 
in  its  own  mind,  by  its  own  self-active  efibrt,  before  it 
can  appreciate  and,  consequently,  before  it  ought  to 
receive  the  symbol  or  sign  —  the  word. 


110  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

In  the  examination  of  objects  he  always  proceeds 
from  the  whole,  i.  e.,  from  the  first  impression,  to  the 
parts,  i.  e.j  to  careful  analysis.  In  the  building-up  of 
ideas,  in  comparison  and  classification,  he  made  sure, 
first,  of  particulars,  elements;  and  proceeded  slowly, 
gradually,  continuously  to  general,  more  comprehensive 
ideas  and  names.  At  the  same  time,  he  aimed  con- 
stantly at  organic  connection  between  the  subject  and 
the  object,  between  the  learner  and  the  things  learned; 
and  strove  to  establish  a  similar  connection  between 
the  various  branches  of  instruction  and  practice. 

Again,  he  insists  upon  constant  self-activity  on  the 
part  of  the  child.  He  never  does  for  the  child  what 
it  can  do  for  itself,  because  only  its  own  work,  only 
the  direct  exercise  of  its  ow^n  powers,  will  give  strength 
to  these  and  increase  their  substance,  as  it  were.  His 
(the  teacher's)  activity  is  only  directing  or  guiding, 
only  impelling  or  inducing,  as  the  case  may  require. 
This  is  one  of  Pestalozzi's  greatest  points",  and  so 
prominent  that  Benecke,  whom  I  have  had  occasion 
to  mention  in  a  previous  lecture,  says  of  Pestalozzi's 
method :  "  He  aims  throughout  at  self-active  growth  of 
insight,  in  continuous  progress  and  exhaustive  com- 
pleteness." And  Schw^arz,  a  noted  writer  on  pedagog- 
ical subjects,  says  of  him :  "  He  has  cut  a  new  road  by 
the  exercise  of  the  powers  in  limited  spheres,  on  a 
limited  number  of  objects;  from  earliest  youth,  in  every 
station  of  life,  he  wants  to  lead  man  to  his  greatest 
good,  to  his  divine  destiny.  Every  one  is  to  be  brought 
to  a  full  appreciation  of  his  own  powers;  and  a  pure, 
true  appreciation  of  his  worth  is  to  bring  him  to  the 
noblest  use  of  his  powers." 


PESTALOZZI.  Ill 

It  would  be  to  sin  against  truth,  and  thus  to  deprive 
history  of  its  greatest  power  for  good,  if  the  faults  of 
the  great  man  were  overlooked  here.  Some  of  these 
have  already  been  hinted  in  this  and  the  previous 
lecture.  Among  these  are  the  want  of  caution  and 
circumspection,  of  organizing  talent  and  practical  com- 
mon sense;  and  more,  perhaps,  than  these,  his  ignorance 
of  pedagogic  thoughts  and  deeds  in  previous  times.  He 
only  knew  the  great  misery  around  him,  and  Rousseau 
and  his  own  good  heart  drove  him  to  sacrifice  himself 
in  efforts  to  alleviate  it. 

But  there  are  some  other,  perhaps  minor  faults,  that 
are  important  enough  to  be  mentioned  here.  Among 
these,  his  exclusive  reliance  upon  the  family,  as  an 
educational  agent,  stands  at  the  head.  Aside  from  the 
practical  impossibility  of  educating  a  number  of  chil- 
dren of  various  ages  in  the  family  alone,  this  error 
of  his  shows  an  almost  entire  disregard  of  the  claims 
of  society  upon  the  young  human  being,  and  of  the 
necessity  of  training  it,  as  early  as  possible,  for  social 
relations,  for  free  intercourse  with  equals. 

Again,  short-sightedness  or  want  of  scope  is  mani- 
fested in  the  reduction  of  all  sensuous  impression.s  to 
number,  form,  and  word.  Certainly  there  are  many 
other  categories  of  sensual  existence  besides  number, 
form,  and  word.  Even  if  we  look  upon  them  symbolic- 
all}^,  viewing  number  and  form,  as  the  signs  of  imioressive 
agents,  and  word  as  the  sign  of  expressive  action,  it  seems 
difficult  to  force  all  that  impresses  us  and  all  our  modes 
of  expression  within  these  terms. 

Again,  the  use  of  mechanical  exercises  in  enunciation 
and  speaking  had  become  a  sort  of  superstition  with 


112  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

him.  He  used  them  to  such  a  morbid  excess  that  they 
contributed  much  to  his  defeats,  inasmuch  as  his  prac- 
tice in  this  respect  was  directly  opposed  to  his  theory. 
This  led  him,  too,  in  his  propositions  concerning  the 
teaching  of  geography,  history,  anthropology,  and  nat- 
ural science,  into  an  artificial  mechanism,  a  mind- 
killing  verbiage,  and  memorizing  of  long  lists  of  names 
that  were  as  far  removed  from  Pestalozzianism  as  dark- 
ness is  from  light. 

His  admirable  principle  that,  in  the  study  of  objects, 
we  should  proceed  from  the  near  to  the  remote,  caused 
him  to  forget  that  things  may  be  too  near  for  convenient 
and  accurate  observation,  and  misled  him  into  the  per- 
nicious practice  of  beginning  with  the  child's  own  body, 
a  proceeding  which,  by  insuring  failure  at  the  start, 
could  not  fail  to  bring  his  ideas  into  disrepute. 

As  akin  to  his  over-estimation  of  the  familv  as  an 
educational  factor,  we  should  note,  too,  his  over-estima- 
tion of  the  mother  as  the  educator  in  the  family.  In  this 
respect,  the  father  seems  to  have  no  existence  at  all  for 
him.  This  fault  may  be  due  to  his  own  early  education, 
and  to  the  peculiar  conditions  of  the  society  in  which  he 
lived  and  for  which  he  worked;  but  even  a  little  philo- 
sophical insight  might  have  saved  him  from  this  griev- 
ous error.  If  it  was  his  excellence  to  be  what  he  was  by 
his  heart,  it  surely  was  his  fault  that  his  heart  exercised 
a  too  despotic  control  over  his  head. 

Thus  it  happened  that,  as  a  practical  teacher,  he  stood 
far  below  mediocrity.  He  taught  without  plan;  cared 
neither  for  time  nor  for  the  fatigue  of  the  children ; 
neglected  reading  and  writing;  neither  developed  nor 
repeated ;  entirely  disregarded  order  and  expediency  in 


PESTALOZZI.  113 

the  occupations  of  the  children ;  worked  only  with  the 
masses  or  classes,  and  took  no  heed  of  individuals; 
wasted  much  of  his  time  in  having  the  children  repeat 
after  him  sentences  which  they  did  not  understand; 
and,  even  in  these  exercises,  neglected  correctness  and 
euphony  of  speech. 

And  yet,  in  spite  of  all  these  faults,  he  is  the  founder 
of  modern  pedagogy.  He  is  this  by  his  indefatigable 
zeal,  his  Christ-like  self-denial,  his  enthusiasm  for  truth 
and  human  happiness.  These  qualities  charmed  all  who 
came  in  his  vicinity,  and  kindled  in  them  similar  feel- 
ings, induced  them  to  improve  upon  his  virtues  and  to 
steer  past  his  faults. 

As  Jessen  has  said  of  him,  "he  was  an  enlightening 
creative  hero  of  education;  an  eagle  who,  as  Dante  says 
of  Homer,  vanquishes  all  in  his  flight.  No  one  has,  like 
him,  set  the  world  ablaze  in  a  holy  enthusiasm  for  the 
great  task  of  ennobling  the  human  race;  no  one  has, 
like  him,  shaken  the  stolid  world  and  overcome  its 
resistance.  He  was  a  man  great  through  his  faith  in 
his  ideal,  great  in  his  aims,  great  in  the  self-denial 
with  which  he  fought  for  his  ideal,  great  in  his  zeal 
to  alleviate  human  suffering  —  a  zeal  which  had  be- 
come a  part  of  his  very  being.  Thus  Pestalozzi's  great- 
ness consists,  perhaps,  more  in  the  impulse  he  gave 
than  it  does  in  his  direct  achievements." 


H.  P.-IO. 


LECTURE   XL 

FREDERIC   FROEBEL  —  KINDERGARTEN    CULTURE. 

The  most  enthusiastic  admirer  and  disciple  of  Pesta- 
lozzi  was,  fortunately,  a  man  singularly  predisposed  by 
his  training  to  complete  the  task  left  unfinished  by  the 
great  master.     This  man  was  Frederic  Froebel.  * 

Like  Pestalozzi,  he  found  the  aim  of  education  in  har- 
monious development,  in  the  production  of  well-balanced 
human  beings;  like  Pestalozzi,  he  looked  for  the  princi- 
ples of  education  in  the  laws  of  human  nature;  like 
Pestalozzi,  he  required  growth  from  within  outward, 
and  relied,  therefore,  upon  self-activity  on  the  part  of 
the  learner,  as  the  indispensable  condition  of  success  in 
educational  labors.  He  accepted  fully  and  unreservedly 
all  that  Pestalozzi  had  done,  and  built  upon  the  law  of 
intuition  as  a  broad  and  firm  basis.  To  this,  however, 
he  added  the  law  of  the  "connection  of  contrasts."  At 
the  same  time,  he  invented  the  ABC  of  the  productive 
phase  of  self-activity,  and  showed  how  the  exercise  of  the 


-■•  For  a  biographical  sketch,  I  refer  the  reader  to  the  preface 
of  my  Kindergarten  Culture. 
(114) 


FROEBEL.  115 

productive  serves  not  only  to  strengthen  the  receptive 
powers  and  to  enrich  the  mind  and  heart,  but  how  it 
alone  can  render  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  useful. 

From  the  very  beginning,  he  would  have  these  two 
phases  of  self-activity  —  the  receptive  and  the  produc- 
tive—  go  hand  in  hand.  Every  new  intuition  is  to  be 
used  in  new  forms  of  expression,  and  to  be  combined  in 
every  possible  manner  with  previous  acquisitions,  in 
more  and  more  complicated,  more  and  more  directly 
useful  productions.  He  keeps  the  learner  ever  busy, 
imitating  and  inventing  with  the  ever-increasing  stock 
of  knowledge ;  and  ever  increasing  the  stock  of  ideas 
with  the  aid  of  imitations  and  inventions,  in  accordance 
with  the  law  of  the  "  connection  of  contrasts." 

The  harmonious  development  of  man  requires  not  only 
knowledge,  but  also  skill;  not  only  ideas,  but  also  the 
application  of  ideas.  Nay,  if  we  consider  that  knowl- 
edge manifests  itself  usefully  only  through  skill,  that 
ideas  enter  life  only  through  their  application,  we  are 
to  some  extent  justified  in  looking  upon  the  latter  as 
more  important.  Knowledge  without  skill,  like  a  stuffed 
elephant,  maj^  challenge  our  astonishment,  but  can  not 
exert  any  influence  in  life;  it  is  as  unproductive  of 
either  good  or  evil  as  the  sword  in  the  hands  of  a  statue. 
The  education  of  children,  more  especially  in  schools, 
has  suffered  for  centuries,  and  particularly  in  modern 
times,  from  the  fatal  one-sidedness  of  paying  almost  ex- 
clusive attention  to  knowledge.  Our  time,  as  Froebel 
and  his  followers  express  it,  is  sick  from  a  surfeit  of 
knowledge.  These  truisms  lay  in  the  consciousness  of 
thinking  pedagogues  long  before  Froebel  —  from  Plato 
to  Pestalozzi  —  but   it   was  reserved  for  Froebel  to  let 


116  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

the  consciousness  ripen  into  the  deed  by  his  invention 
of  the  Kindergarten. 

Pestalozzi,  wonderfully  aroused  by  Rousseau's  vigorous 
writings,  and  still  more  by  the  misery  of  the  ignorant 
and  unskilled  masses,  found  the  way  of  educating  the 
child  to  independence  in  intuition,  in  the  acquisition 
of  ideas,  and  invented  the  ABC  of  knowledge;  but  his 
efforts  to  find  an  ABC  of  skill  were  fruitless,  although 
he  devoted  himself  to  the  task  with  conscious  longing. 
Frocbel,  however,  animated  by  an  equally  intense  phi- 
hmthropy,  but  endowed  with  more  philosophical  insight 
and  more  thorough  knowledge,  unveiled  also  this  secret, 
and  indicates,  in  his  writings  on  "  The  Education  of 
Maiij^^  the  way  to  independence  in  skill,  in  the  art  of 
doing  and  inventing,  in  jiroductive,  creative  activity. 

With  his  predecessors  in  the  mastership  of  pedagogy, 
he  holds  that  education  must  begin  at  birth,  and  seeks 
the  laws  of  pedagogic  practice  in  the  natural  being  and 
doing  of  the  child.  He  observed  how  the  latter,  from 
the  first  dawn  of  consciousness,  is  ever  eager  to  apply 
the  acquired  intuition  —  to  make  use  of  them  —  partly 
by  simply  reproducing  them,  partly  by  combining  them 
w^ith  others  formerly  gained,  in  order  to  attain  some- 
thing new,  or  to  enjoy  the  results  of  its  creative  activ- 
ity. At  the  same  time,  he  observed  that  the  child,  as 
a  living  being,  is  attracted  most  by  living  things,  and, 
in  the  next  place,  by  moving  or  movable  objects. 

These  and  similar  observations  led  him  to  the  inven- 
tion of  a  number  of  gifts  or  playthings  for  little  children. 
In  the  construction  of  these  gifts  he  was  guided  by  his 
law  of  the  "connection  of  contrasts."  He  holds  that 
we  owe  all  our  knowledge,  primarily,  to  contrasts  in  the 


FROEBEL.  117 

qualities  of  surrounding  objects.  By  these  contrasts  our 
attention  is  drawn  to  the  objects,  to  their  comparison, 
their  observation ;  without  them,  comparison  and  ob- 
servation—  mental  life,  indeed  —  would  be  impossible, 
until  inkable. 

These  contrasts,  however,  are  brought  together  again, 
reduced  to  a  common  idea  by  intervening  degrees  of  the 
same  quality  in  other  objects.  The  discovery  of  these 
intervening  degrees  he  designates  by  the  name,  "con- 
nection of  contrasts,"  a  process  by  which  the  mutual 
relations  in  the  qualities  of  objects  are  brought  out, 
and  the  unity,  the  oneness  in  them  is  unveiled.  All 
thinking,  he  maintains,  is  reducible  to  this  law ;  every 
step  in  the  history  of  ideas  rests  upon  it ;  even  in 
emotional  life,  in  the  formation  of  taste  and  character, 
and  in  physical  development,  it  holds  good.  * 

The  gifts,  or  playthings,  consist  of  balls,  cylinders, 
cones,  variously  dissected  cubes,  quadrilateral  and  tri- 
angular tablets,  sticks,  mats  for  weaving,  etc.  By 
means  of  these  the  child  is  gradually  and  pleasantly 
introduced  into  the  Avorld  of  ideas,  gains  notions  of  cor- 
poreality, of  color,  shape,  size,  number,  etc.  At  the 
same  time,  it  learns  to  use  them  in  imitating  and, 
consequently,  fixing  ideas  gained  from  other  objects,  in 
inventing  new,  more  or  less  abstract  combinations  of 
the  component  parts  of  the  gift. 

The  results  of  the  child's  more  or  less  self-active 
efforts  are  classified  by  Froebel  as  forifns  of  cognition,  of 


"For  a  full  discussion  and  illustrations  of  this  law,  as  well 
as  for  a  detailed  description  of  Froebel's  gifts,  I  refer  the  reader 
to  my  Kindergarten  Culture, 


118  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

life^  and  of  beauty.  By  the  forms  of  cognition  the  child 
obtains  and  fixes  new  ideas,  gains  knowledge ;  by  the 
forms  of  life  it  reproduces  or  expresses,  more  or  less 
faithfully,  ideas  gained  from  surrounding  objects;  and 
by  the  forms  of  beauty,  or  symmetrical  arrangements 
of  the  parts  of  the  gift,  it  trains  its  inventive  powers 
and  forms  its  taste. 

Thus  the  third  gift,  a  two-inch  cube  dissected  into 
eight  one-inch  cubes,  offers  combinations  of  its  compo- 
nent parts — forms  of  cognition  —  by  which  the  child 
obtains  ideas  of  number,  shape,  size,  and  relations  of 
position.  Again,  it  enables  the  child  to  build,  in  rude 
outline,  tables,  chairs,  walls,  ladders,  bridges,  and  other 
fo7'ms  of  life;  and  the  eight  cubical  blocks  offer  much 
scope  in  producing  a  variety  of  symmetrical  arrange- 
ments, or  forvis  of  beauty. 

He  lays  great  stress,  too,  upon  the  development  of 
physical  vigor,  grace,  and  skill,  by  means  of  calisthenic 
and  gymnastic  exercises;  ujwn  the  cultivation  of  taste, 
scope,  and  power  in  language,  by  means  of  declamation, 
song,  and  lively  conversation ;  and  upon  the  simultane- 
ous training  of  hand  and  head  in  imitative  and  in- 
ventive drawing  on  slates  and  paper,  specially  prepared 
and  ruled  for  the  guidance  of  the  little  artists. 

A  most  important  feature  of  his  invention  we  have, 
again,  in  the  social  games,  and  in  the  fact  that  all  the 
occupations  of  the  kindergarten  are  managed  in  such  a 
way  as  to  unfold  and  train  the  social  nature  of  the  child. 
From  the  very  beginning,  the  child  is  taught  by  direct 
experience  that  it  finds  the  richest  source  of  happiness 
in  doing  good — in  usefulness;  and  that  it  gains  strength 
for  greater  usefulness  in  the  free,  voluntary  union  with 


FROEBEL.  119 

others,  in  the  social  subordination  to  common  purposes. 
At  the  same  time,  the  kindergarten  takes  care  not  to 
drown  individuality,  but,  by  enlarging  its  scope,  con- 
tinually offers  new  and  strong  incentives  for  its  full 
development. 

Froebei  looks  upon  the  little  children  as  organic 
beings,  whose  growth  must  be  led  and  followed  by  the 
educator  as  the  growth  of  plants  is  led  and  followed  by 
the  gardener;  hence  the  name  kindergarten  —  garden 
for  children.  It  is  true  that  he  would  have  an  actual 
garden  connected  with  these  institutions,  so  that  the 
child  may,  by  direct  observation,  become  familiar  with 
the  laws  of  growth,  and  learn  to  know  arid  love  nature, 
of  which  it,  too,  is  an  exponent.  Still,  such  a  garden, 
while  it  is  eminently  desirable,  is  not  an  essential 
feature  of  the  kindergarten,  since  there  are  many  other 
ways  to  accomplish  similar  results.  Among  these,  the 
cultivation  of  plants  in  pots  or  boxes,  and  occasional 
excursions  into  the  fields  and  forests,  occupy  a  promi- 
nent place. 

Froebei,  however,  would  make  the  kindergarten  not 
only  a  place  for  the  proper  education  of  little  children, 
but  also  a  training-school  for  mothers  and  nurses.  He 
appeals  most  earnestly  to  mothers  to  visit  the  kinder- 
garten, to  attend  its  teachings,  to  practice  there  the 
art  of  bringing  up  the  little  ones;  and  he  would  estab- 
lish institutions  in  which  young  girls  can  prepare 
themselves  for  the  difficult  and  responsible  duties  of  a 
mother  or  nurse.  Fortunately,  his  appeals  were  not 
unheeded ;  for  Europe,  and  more  especially  Germany, 
can  boast  of  a  number  of  such  training-schools,  doing 
admirable  work,  increasing  daily  in   scope   and   influ- 


120  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

ence,  and  sending  out  annually  hundreds  of  enthusi- 
astic and  skillful  missionaries  in  the  good  cause. 

Again,  Froebel's  plans  did  not  end  with  the  kinder- 
garten. Finding  the  body  pedagogic  diseased,  he  did  not 
propose  to  cure  it  by  the  mere  addition  of  a  healthy 
member,  which  would  be  doomed  to  become  a  prey  to 
the  general  degeneracy  of  that  body;  but  he  meant 
that  the  kindergarten  should  leaven  the  entire  system 
of  teaching  children,  at  home  and  at  school.  He  would 
have  it  used  as  an  entering  wedge  to  break  down 
whatever  is  illogical,  unnatural  —  nay,  inhuman  —  in 
family  and  school  education ;  he  would  make  it  the 
forerunner  of  school  and  youtli  gardens,  ^.  e.,  of  institu- 
tions in  which  the  learner  is  placed  in  the  most  favor- 
able circumstances  for  self-active,  organic  growth  in 
every  direction  of  his  being,  where  knowledge  and 
skill,  saying  and  doing,  theory  and  practice,  go  hand 
in  hand  at  every  step. 

Indeed,  his  labors  have  already  brought  forth  rich 
fruit.  Even  a  superficial  review  of  the  progress  of  edu- 
cational principles  in  modern  times,  yields  abundant 
proof  of  the  great  influence  that  Froebel  has  exerted 
upon  the  spirit  which  animates  this  progress.  Every- 
where we  see  the  tendency  to  technical  education; 
drawing  forms  a  branch  of  instruction  in  all  well- 
appointed  school  systems,  even  in  our  country;  calis- 
thenic  and  gymnastic  exercises  gain  ground  from  day 
to  day ;  music  cheers  the  souls  of  thousands  of  little 
learners,  where  a  few  j'-ears  ago  there  was  only  the 
monotonous  drawl  of  recitation  or  the  excited  tone  of 
the  rebuking  teacher. 

Again,  it  can  not  be  denied  that  the  employment  of 


rROEBEi|u  H"  1 7  s  H  Si  rr 


female  teachers,  particularly  in  elementary  schools,  is 
due,  to  a  great  extent,  to  Froebel's  influence.  lie  held 
that  teaching  the  little  ones  is  the  natural  calling  of 
woman;  that  by  her  greater  tenderness,  her  deeper 
sympathy  for  the  yearnings  of  children,  by  her  quicker 
perception  of  their  needs  and  wants,  by  her  more  inti- 
mate relationship  to  the  child,  by  her  readier  adapta- 
bility to  its  ways,  by  her  more  graceful  movements 
and  her  more  winning  words,  she  is  much  better  fitted 
than  man  —  other  circumstances  being  the  same  —  to 
arouse  the  child  to  free  obedience  and  eager  self-activity, 
and  to  implant  the  seeds  of  love  and  purity  in  its 
heart. 

Similarly,  the  growing  employment  of  love,  good 
habit,  and  reason  in  discipline,  in  preference  to  brute 
force ;  the  greater  attention  paid  to  the  plays  of  chil- 
dren ;  the  gaining  practice  of  co-education  of  the  sexes, 
at  least  in  elementary  schools;  the  war  against  one- 
sidedness  in  education;  the  greater  respect  paid  to 
child-nature;  the  increasing  value  attached  to  self- 
activity  and  individuality;  the  demand  for  less  routine 
and  more  work  in  the  branches  of  instruction;  the 
gradual  decline  of  artifice  before  the  claims  of  nature ; 
the  steady  retreat  of  machine-teaching  before  natural 
development,  are  unquestionably  due,  in  a  high  degree, 
to  Froebel's  influence. 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  when  we  consider  what  stress 
was  laid  by  Froebel  upon  the  training  of  women  for  the 
important  work  of  early  education,  that,  both  in  this 
country  and  in  Europe,  the  leading  apostleship  for  the 
new  education  was  assumed  by  women.  In  Europe,  the 
baronness  Bertha  von  Marenholtz-Buelow  has  devoted 

H.  p.— 11. 


122  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

her  life  to  the  diffusion  of  Froebel's  teachings.  She  has 
established  kindergartens  in  France,  Belgium,  Holland, 
Switzerland,  England,  and  Italy;  and  Austria  has  even 
incorporated  the  kindergarten  with  her  public  school 
system.  In  America,  Miss  Eliza  P.  Peabody  and  her 
sister,  Mrs.  Horace  Mann,  first  drew  public  attention  to 
the  new  education  by  the  publication  of  their  ''^Kinder- 
garten Gwic?e,"  and  by  the  establishment  of  a  genuine 
English  kindergarten  in  Boston,  a  few  years  ago. 

Thus  the  good  work  is  progressing  nobly;  and  the 
regeneration  of  education,  on  the  basis  of  Froebel's 
ideas,  is  slowly  and  surely  finding  its  way  into  the 
home,  as  well  as  into  the  school. 


-V 


LECTURE  XII. 


SUMMING   UP  —  CONCLUSION. 


We  see  from  the  preceding  lectures  how  the  Caucasian 
race  has  gradually  and  surely  approached  the  principles 
of  development  or  evolution  in  the  work  of  education. 
It  appears  that  these  principles  were  alread}^,  in  a  de- 
gree, felt  and  followed  by  the  Greeks;  on  the  other 
hand,  even  the  superficial  student  of  the  educational 
systems  of  our  day  will  often  come  across  practices  that 
seem  to  be  fully  as  far  removed  from  the  laws  of  de- 
velopment as  Chinese  education  has  been  from  time 
immemorial. 

This  must  needs  be  so,  since  the  roots  of  our  civiliza- 
tion lie  far  down  in  Greek  soil;  and  as  far  as  our 
civilization  contains  truth,  Greek  culture  must  have 
contained  the  seeds  of  truth.  For  truth  may  displace 
or  destroy  falsehood,  may  even  grow  strong  upon  it, 
but  never  can  come  from  it.  Nor  can  we,  on  the  other 
hand,  hope  ever  to  reach  full,  unalloyed,  absolute  truth; 
error  ever  will  surround  us,  and  eat  its  way  into  the 
inmost  life  of  many,  to  goad  the  race  on  to  that  con- 
stant search,  that  eager  yearning  for  truth,  which  con- 
stitutes progress. 

(123) 


124  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

The  Greeks  emancipated  education  from  the  cnrse  of 
caste  and  asserted  the  claims  of  individuality;  not,  it 
is  true,  without  a  grand  final  struggle  between  Plato, 
who  would  sacrifice  the  individual  to  the  state,  and 
who  calls  for  an  equal,  common,  public  education,  and 
Aristotle,  the  champion  of  individual  liberty  and  of  the 
sacredness  of  family  ties,  with  which  public  education 
never  must  interfere.  At  the  same  time,  the  Greeks 
teach  the  race  to  look  upward  beyond  the  realms  of 
merely  sensual  existence,  establish  high  ideals  of  edu- 
cation—  "the  Good  and  the  Beautiful"  —  and  demand 
harmony  in  culture;  while  their  greatest  teachers, 
Pythagoras  and  Socrates,  pave  the  way  to  sound  natural 
and  rational  methods  of  instruction. 

Subsequently,  the  excessive  idealism  of  Greek  culture 
found  a  corrective  in  the  sturdy  realism,  the  practical 
common  sense  of  the  Romans;  and  when  Rome  lay 
dying  of  her  own  gross  sins,  Christianity  came  to  save 
the  highest  achievements  of  the  race,  and  to  fertilize 
them  with  ncAv  elements  of  health  and  vigor. 

Christianity,  a  child  of  Semitic  civilization  —  a  civil- 
ization that  looked  with  the  greatest  reverence  upon 
the  family,  and  considered  the  fear  of  God  as  the 
highest  virtue  —  engrafted  upon  European  culture  the 
principle  of  strict  humanity,  liberated  it  from  the  bane 
of  arbitrary  and  accidental  external  distinctions  among 
men,  raised  woman  to  full  equality  with  her  mate  before 
God,  and  taught  respect  for  children,  the  framers  of  the 
future. 

And  when,  in  the  middle  ages,  its  high  teachings 
had  been  misapplied  by  the  selfishness  of  man  for 
sordid  and  ambitious  ends,  or  perverted   by  diseased 


CONCLUSION.  125 

superstition  into  a  curse,  blasting  earthly  happiness 
and  paralyzing  usefulness  in  real  life,  philosophy  came 
to  the  rescue,  dispelled  the  clouds,  the  Sun  of  Truth 
was  again  revealed,  and  his  restoring  and  reforming 
rays  aroused  European  civilization  to  a  new  and  better 
life.  Progress,  that  had  slumbered  so  long,  awoke  to 
new  vigor  and  made  rapid  strides  under  the  leadership 
of  Bacon,  Locke,  Descartes,  Spinoza,  Kant,  and  a  host 
of  others. 

Through  the  influence  of  these  great  men,  pure, 
unalloyed  humanity  became  the  soul;  the  harmonious 
development  of  well-balanced,  self-dependent,  vigorous, 
and  virtuous  human  beings,  the  aim  of  educational 
efforts.  Man  was  shown  to  be  an  organic  being,  subject 
in  all  his  manifestations  of  existence  to  ordinary,  natu- 
ral laws;  growing,  developing,  in  all  directions  of  his 
being,  organically,  from  within  outward;  and  all  edu- 
cational ends  and  means  that  are  not  in  accordance 
with  these  conquests  of  philosophy  were  proved  to  be 
pernicious,  and  are  gradually  yielding  before  the  su- 
preme power  of  better  insight. 

Among  the  many  prominent  mediators  of  this  better 
insight,  we  have  singled  out  Comenius,  Francke,  Pesta- 
lozzi,  and  Froebel,  each  one  representing  some  important 
phase  in  the  growth  of  a  school  practice,  corresponding 
in  scope  and  spirit  with  the  laws  and  aims  of  the  devel- 
oping education :  Comenius  as  the  pioneer  of  vernacular 
schools,  of  intuitional  teaching,  and  of  analytico-syn- 
thetic  methods;  Francke,  as  the  founder  of  scientific 
and  technical  schools,  the  champion  of  individuality 
and  of  the  greater  importance  of  training  the  pupil's 
powers  and  forming  his  character,  compared  with  mere 


126  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

instruction;  Pestalozzi,  as  the  father  of  popular  educa- 
tion and  expounder  of  natural  methods  in  the  acquisi- 
tion of  knowledge ;  and  Froebel,  as  the  apostle  of  self- 
activity,  of  the  productive  side  in  child-nature,  and  of 
female  influence  in  the  work  of  education. 

After  thus  reviewing  some  of  the  leading  features  in 
the  history  of  developing  education,  it  behooves  us  to 
ask  ourselves  to  what  extent  our  own  school  system,  our 
immediate  schools,  our  personal  principles  and  practice, 
satisfy  in  tendenc}',  scope,  and  character  the  require- 
ments of  the  "new  education,"  so  that  our  work  may 
reap  direct  benefits  from  our  study.  Of  course,  only  the 
first  of  these,  our  school  S3^stem,  is  open  for  our  common 
consideration ;  and,  with  reference  to  this,  I  beg  leave 
to  ofier  a  few  average  results  of  my  own  personal 
observation. 

It  is  a  source  of  just  congratulation  to  the  Ameri- 
can citizen,  that  the  political  and  social  institutions 
of  his  country  are  more  favorable,  nearer  to  humanity 
than  those  of  any  other  great  nation  in  the  world. 
Our  Constitution  grants  equal  political  rights  to  all 
citizens,  and  respects  personal  freedom  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  it  leaves  the  conscience  of  all  men  free,  with 
reference  to  religious  opinions  and  practices.  Socially, 
we  judge  men  by  their  inner  worth  and  by  their 
achievements,  caring  not  for  external  or  accidental 
distinctions,  except  where  fashion  has  imported  folly 
from  abroad.  Even  the  exorbitant  value  placed  upon 
wealth  has  its  root  in  this,  since  wealth  is  the  com- 
monest reward  of  excellence.  Hence,  too,  woman  — 
showing  herself  in  so  many  activities  the  equal  of 
man  —  occupies  among  us  a  higher  social  position,  and 


CONCLUSION.  127 

exerts  a  greater  influence  upon  the  general  welfare, 
than  in  any  other  civilized  country.  Even  children 
are  treated  with  greater  consideration  and  looked  upon 
with  more  respect  than  elsewhere. 

These  things  have  developed  in  the  American  citizen 
an  almost  instinctive  independence  of  character,  which 
is  exceedingly  favorable  to  the  development  of  strong 
individualities.  Add  to  this  the  traditional  energy  and 
endurance  of  the  American,  which  he  owes  to  the  early 
struggles  of  his  forefathers  with  a  reluctant  wilderness 
and  an  obstinate  race,  and  to  the  glorious  war  of  the 
revolution ;  add  our  great  national  power  and  the  vast- 
ness  of  our  resources  that  render  us  wholly  independent 
of  other  nations,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why 
our  country  should  not  stand  foremost  in  culture,  and 
our  educational  systems  be  the  best,  nearest  to  the  ideal 
of  the  great  teachers  whom  we  have  reviewed. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights  may 
I}roduce  jealousy  in  those  less  favored  with  capacity  or 
success,  and  may  bring  about  an  equalization,  particu- 
larly in  educational  efforts,  which  is  adverse  to  the 
assertion  and  development  of  individuality.  Excessive 
respect  and  consideration  shown  to  the  young  may 
breed  a  self-satisfied  conceit,  which,  in  its  turn,  brings 
forth  indolence.  The  ease  of  making  a  living  may 
strengthen  this  indolence,  and  render  man  content 
with  the  acquisition  of  wealth  and  comfort,  or  pervert 
his  energy  into  a  nervous  chase  after  money,  which 
gives  him  the  means  to  plunge  into  a  whirlpool  of 
gross,  exciting,  sensual  pleasures. 

Thus,  the  very  blessings  that  are  justly  our  greatest 
boast,  expose  us  to  a  self-conceit,  an  indolence,  a  sensu- 


128  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

ality,  an  egotism,  that  may  pervert  those  very  blessings 
into  curses,  if  we  are  not  ever  humbly  watchful  of  our- 
selves. Add  to  this,  again,  the  fact  that  we  owe  to  our 
mother-country,  England,  an  almost  bigoted  respect  for 
authority  and  precedent;  a  conservativism  that  hangs 
ever  like  lead  upon  the  skirts  of  progress;  a  utilitarian 
tendenc}^  that  worships  the  real,  w^hile  it  scorns  the 
ideal  or  smiles  at  it,  and  we  can  readily  understand 
that  much  energ}^  will  yet  have  to  be  expended,  if  the 
manhood  of  our  country  is  to  justify  the  hopes  and 
expectations  of  its  youth. 

Yet,  if  we  take  our  school  system,  the  mightiest 
factor  of  the  future,  as  a  criterion,  we  have  reason  to 
feel  reassured  and  encouraged.  It  is  true,  our  school 
system  still  struggles  with  many  difficulties  and  suffers 
from  a  host  of  faults.  So  many  parents  and  school 
trustees  have  no  idea  of  the  importance  or  the  aims 
of  true  education.  A  great  number  of  teachers  look 
upon  their  work  as  a  temporary,  convenient  mode  of 
making  a  living.  The  school  aims,  in  so  many  in- 
stances, almost  exclusively  at  directly  visible  results, 
and  crushes  all  efforts  at  the  development  of  mental 
and  physical  vigor,  of  individuality  and  character, 
under  the  dead  weight  of  percentage;  it  would  force 
all  the  pupils  to  do  a  certain  number  of  things  equally 
well,  and  thus  hampers  progress,  favors  show,  and  does 
nothing  very  thoroughly  nor  very  far;  it  reduces  the 
teacher  to  a  recitation  machine  and  the  pupil  to  a 
memorizing  contrivance;  it  does,  indeed,  many  things 
that  are  useless  or  injurious,  and  neglects  many  things 
that  are  indispensable,  if  education  is  to  prepare  the 
young  for  full  usefulness  and  true  happiness. 


CONCLUSION.  129 

On  the  other  hand,  our  people  as  a  whole,  at  least 
in  the  states  that  have  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  a  common 
school  system,  seem  to  be  aware  of  the  necessity  of 
schools,  seem  to  feel  that  good  comes  or  can  come  from 
them.  This  feeling  may,  in  many  cases,  be  quite  in- 
distinct and  ill-defined;  but  it  is  sufficiently  keen  to 
render  them  ever  ready  to  sacrifice  wealth  for  the 
maintenance  and  improvement  of  their  schools.  No 
country  in  the  world,  except,  perhaps,  some  portions 
of  Switzerland,  can  boast  of  expending  so  much  for 
schools,  in  proportion  to  the  cost  of  other  public  con- 
cerns, as  these  favored  states;  and  all  the  states  of  the 
Union  are  gradually  but  surely  drifting  to  this  desirable 
condition. 

The  wish  to  send  to  school  is  so  general  and  grows 
so  rapidly,  that  the  necessity  of  compulsory  laws  be- 
comes ever  less  urgent.  Our  school-houses  are  built 
commodiously,  with  fair  provisions  for  light,  air,  heat, 
and  for  comfort  in  the  seats.  Our  school  appliances, 
within  the  narrow  but  expanding  scope  of  our  subjects 
of  instruction,  are  good  and  improving.  In  the  methods 
of  instruction,  imperfect  as  they  are,  much  of  the  work 
is  thrown  upon  the  learner  —  often,  indeed,  more  than 
his  powers  justify.  The  demand  for  play-grounds,  for 
physical  training,  for  respect  to  the  development  of 
the  body,  for  technical  instruction,  for  a  more  intimate 
intercourse  with  nature,  is  steadily  increasing.  In  dis- 
cipline there  is  a  groAving  tendency  to  do  away  with 
force  and  mere  authority,  and  to  rely  more  and  more 
upon  insight  and  good  habits  on  the  part  of  the  pupil ; 
although,  of  late,  a  cheap  sort  of  military  discipline 
has  been  retarding  sound  progress  quite  considerably. 


130  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY. 

At  the  same  time,  the  number  of  parents  and  school 
trustees  that  appreciate  the  requirements  of  a  truly 
good  education  is  gaining  from  year  to  year.  And,  best 
of  all,  the  number  of  teachers  who  feel  the  divinity  of 
their  calling,  and  who  are  willing  to  forego  more  lucra- 
tive or  less  trying  occupations  for  the  sake  of  devoting 
their  lives  to  this,  ia  rapidly  swelling,  thanks  to  the 
liberality  of  the  people  and  to  the  influence  of  normal 
schools.  Before  the  stout  hearts,  the  clear  heads,  and 
the  skillful  hands  of  these  men  and  women,  the  ene- 
mies of  progress  and  of  a  rational,  natural,  humane 
education  —  active  and  passive,  animate  and  inanimate, 
be  their  name  ignorance  or  incapacity,  pedantry  or  pre- 
tense, selfishness  or  prejudice  —  will  be  repelled  into 
the  past  as  steadily  and  surely  as  time  marches  into 
the  future. 


Recent  Publications  : 


Manual  of  Ancient  History,  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the 
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giate Institute.  Illustrated  with  full-page  Engravings  of 
Ancient  Temples  and  other  historical  objects,  Charts  of  the 
principal  Cities,  and  accurate  and  finely  executed  double- 
page  Maps.     Full  8vo,  cloth,  377  pp. 

Mediaeval  and  Modern  History.    By  M.  E.  Thalheimer. 

480  pp.  full  Svo.  12  beautiful  and  accurate  double-page 
Maps.  Voluminous  Index.  Uniform  in  style  and  binding 
with  the  author's  Manual  of  Ancient  History,  and  forming 
with  it  a  Complete  History  of  the  World. 

Bartholomew's  Latin  Grammar.   A  concise  and  systematic 

arrangement  of  the  laws  of  the  Latin  Tongue,  prepared  with 
special  reference  to  class  use  in  Schools  and  Colleges.  By 
G.  K.  Bartholomew.  In  the  treatment  of  Etymology,  the 
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Batholomew's  Latin  Gradual.  To  accompany  the  author's 
Latin  Gram?fiar.     12 mo,  150  pp.,  half  roan. 

A  Progressive  and  Practical  Method  for  the  Study  of 

the  French  Language.  By  F.  Duffet,  Paris,  France, 
author  of  Popular  Method  of  Learning  English. 

DIFFET'S  FRENCH  METHOD,  PART    I.    192  pp.  12mo.    Limp  Cloth. 
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Manual  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  De- 
signed for  the  Instruction  of  American  Youth  in  the  Duties, 
Obligations,  and  Rights  of  Citizenship.  By  Israel  Ward 
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Address  the  Publishers  for  Descriptive  Cirauars  and  Price  List. 

NEW  voRK.}  Wilson,  Hinkle  &  Z^M.^'^X^: 


Recent  Publications  : 

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American  institutions.  For  the  use  of  mothers  and 
teachers.     i2mo,  cloth,  120  pp.     Illustrated. 

Good  Morals  and  Gentle  Manners.  By  Alex.  M. 
Gow,  A.  M.,  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools,  Evans- 
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the  True  Gentleman  and  Lady."     i2mo,  cloth. 

The  Parser's  Manual.  By  John  Williams,  A.  M. 
Classified  Examples  in  nearly  every  variety  of  Eng- 
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Grammar.     i2mo,  cloth,  266  pp. 

The  Amateur  Actor :  A  Collection  of  choice  Acting 
Plays  for  Young  People.  Edited  by  W.  H.  Venable, 
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tions and  explanations  of  Stage  Management,  Cos- 
tumes, Scenery,  etc.,  etc.  Numerous  elegant  Illus- 
trations by  H.  F.  Farny. 

The  School  Stage.  27  New  Juvenile  Acting  Plays, 
for  School  and  Home  Exhibitions.  By  W.  H.  Ven- 
able. Numerous  life-like  Illustrations  by  H.  F. 
Farny.  Full  directions  relating  to  Costume,  Prop- 
erties, and  Stage  "  Business." 

Ray's  Surveying  and  Navigation.  With  a  prelimi- 
nary Treatise  on  Trigonometry  and  Mensuration. 
By  A.  Schuyler,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Applied  Mathe- 
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